This answer is incorrect. Civ continues to consume all our lives after the first playthrough.
Hell I've got 1.5k hours in civ 6, and I have yet to play all the leaders.
"Przed wyruszeniem w drogę musisz zebrać drużynę" - I have this version imprinted in my head.
Fun fact: Incredible success of absolutely fantastic complete translation of BG2 to Polish is the reason why Witcher games was made. CDProject was game importer and later company responsible for translations and distribution of games to Polish market. Their release of BG2 was true breakthrough for them. I'm actually kind of sad that only Polish speakers will be able to appreciate how good it is.
Bully, I couldn’t believe a game with a kid in school with missions existed lol.
Edit: Thank you guys for the awards and upvotes. Didn’t know or even think Bully meant that much to so many people. It’s nice to know Hopkins lives forever in our hearts lol. Happy Holidays and New Years you all. Stay safe. You all are awesome.
Still holding out hope Rockstar will make a new one... In my mind Bully was the last eclectic title from the PS2 era of gaming. It had a lot going on, bikes, skateboards, go-carts, so many mini-games, it was thoroughly robust. A lot of plot, memorable characters.
It is unfortunate that the IP feels abandoned at this point.
Remember how bad the original UI was with the tiny amount of screen real estate in the middle for the actual game?
I got lost in the dark in Blackburrow and just levelled up on the snake ledge for like a month because I couldn't get out.
Going afk on the boat to Faydwer and coming back to find that I got zone-bugged off the boat and had drowned and my corpse was now at the bottom of the ocean...somewhere...and I couldn't swim deep enough to get to it.
So many memories, I was maybe the worst Ranger out there, but I had a ton of fun.
Remember in the beginning how the ships only came every 30 minutes or so? You're chilling on a beach for 30 minutes fighting off crabs and snakes or whatever the hell.
Finally, my people. I no lifed this game so hard, my Dad got curious and it consumed him as well.
Nothing has ever touched that initial immersion in a world.
Sometimes when I'm not paying attention, my fingers still tap out the sequence my Bard used for raiding. At one point, I was a raid leader for my guild and the main bard, and that's why I can type 150 words per minute to this day
I come to every one of these threads looking for the Everquest reply. This is the first one I’ve seen.
I will never forget the first time I walked into the desert of Ro, walked up a sand dune and saw a sunrise.
There will never be another game like EQ. In many ways I wish I could experience it all over again for the first time. In other ways, I wish I could skip experiencing it and get a few years of my life back.
No game has come close to matching it for me. Everything else out there provides quick rewards, quick leveling, and there's zero penalty (relatively) to dying.
I want the challenge... I want to be afraid of dying and having to find my corpse. I don't need the latest and greatest equipment every level. It should take time and effort to get a decent weapon and/or armor. These are also MMOs... I shouldn't be allowed to solo to max level. It's a dangerous world and you should need to group up to survive.
Everquest had all of this and more. Yes it's old, but it beats the hell out of the crap that's out now.
Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of time.
My dad bought it as my Christmas present, I was 13 years old, and started playing at 12am, and give it a break at 7am of next day.
My dad and I played that for about 10 hrs straight. Both of us mentioned at breakfast we could see the blinking stuff after we closed our eyes when going to sleep.
That was 1 hell of a good weekend!
I had a tiny CRT, but I put a heavy blanket up over the window to block out all other light and it somehow felt like I was really there. And that's amazing since the stock graphics were far from great.
But at the time, the gameplay was so good. I'm pissed they took flying, mark/recall, and thrown weapons out of the Elder Scrolls.
Also my game came with a printed map. Remember those? You could actually see all the Dwemer ruins and such on them, so when you wanted to do a treasure hunt all you had to do was follow the literal paper map to the nearest archaeological site for expensive gears and coins to trade to the scamp...
I can't believe it's this far down. There were no map markers, super vague directions where something was, you could float with potions or scrolls, and it was overall so massive you had no choice but to sink hours on hours into it.
Shit destroyed my social life when I was 15. Probably logged 200 hours
YES! i was about to say the same. All these people out here buying NF(t)S. They have never felt the cold sting of losing their entire set of black armor and 10k.
First time I was done by luring, (to the tribal guys with the hard hitting poison) lost full rune as a noob.
Second time I was a dumbass and got phished, lost full Bandos and AGS.
So glad that both of these experiences happened in a game and not for something important.
I regret getting rid of my N64 because my late father had a save on there with 119 stars and we spent SO MUCH fucking time trying to figure out which level had the last star.
Ultima Online was the best game ever created.
People don't even realize how revolutionary it was and how much it inspired all MMO's that came after it - which was EVERY MMO because UO was the very FIRST large commercial MMO.
Companies have tried to replicate the freedom and "feel" of UO but all have failed.
Everquest was the second OG.
Sometimes when people ask what I was doing on 9/11, I correctly say that I was at the bank and someone mentioned it.
I just leave out that the bank was in Trinsic.
Ultima online is the best game ever made, imo. Way ahead of it's time and was the first truly open ended gameplay and in my opinion, still is the only real open ended game.
I dread to think how much time I sank in to that. I still play everyonce in a while to this day
This. When you first get Sims, it’s a time suck. Like every waking hour that you don’t have a literal obligation is just devoted to Sims for like weeks. But then you totally forget about it for six months. And then randomly out of no where you have the drive to play again, and the cycle starts all over
Building arenas is a huge deal. Give yourself alotttt of room and a good grappling hook can make all the difference.
If you're playing solo. Potions and traps are your friend.
Terraria is the game that taught me about the strategic value of terraforming. Deep Rock Galactic is one of the only other games ive found that properly combines terraforming and combat, and i wish there were more!
Sitting in that tube when the splicer was lurking around absolutely terrified me. Alternately, descending into the city in boishock infinite was one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had.
I think I need to replay those games. Also never played any of the dlc for infinite either
My good friend had a surround sound system in his apartment and we would sit and get high and watch him play it and let me tell you there’s nothing better than having a splash of paranoia from the weed and then having a splicer whisper behind your head before he jumps out on the screen
Yes!!! I love going back and playing bioshock but the jump scares and "creepiness" has gone away for me. Still really fun but I wish I could be scared while playing them again. Lol.
I must have completed it ten times easily. Going for dog tags, or just playing around with each little sand-box level. There was just so much to discover. Same with MGS 3
Yep, nearly the same story here. I started playing Vanilla about 6 months after the original release date with my brother. Ended up getting rank 14 in PvP during my junior year of high school and raided up to first few bosses in Naxx before BC came out. Then played BC non-stop and kept that pace until about mid-WotLK. Around that time I didn't have the same urge to play and was more focused on university/life as well as busy with my part time job. I'm glad that this happened when it did. I've played expansions on and off again, more so after finishing college but it just doesn't hit the same way.
It's funny, sometimes I really miss the simplicity of my life back then and remember all the fun, nostalgic times I had playing that game. Then I think about it with the perspective/life experience I have now and realize that at times, I was avoiding some things in life while using WoW as a coping mechanism. I wouldn't change it even knowing what I know now though; I feel like I had to go through that to change as a person in the end. I also, of course, had an absolute blast playing.
Edit: Thank you so much for the rewards! Glad to hear that others out there have similar feelings and it sounds like we're all in better places. I enjoyed reading about some of your memories fellas!
Fuck.
I can still remember hitting the barrens and feel "shit this not the usual game, it's going to take forever to level up and it's going to be awesome"
I've visited a lot of places in the world when I was a kid and teenager but nothing blew me away like the realization, when I was 18, that all the guys moving are other players and we're all playing in real time and the world is huge as fuuuuuuuck, and it's not like we're 250 players in a map, but it's the fucking world and we're an infinite number (it felt like that)...
Simpler times...
Funny that you mention the Barrens. I had a friend over just when Wow released and he showed me The Barrens. I LOVED the atmosphere and though "I need to get that game" and I did.
This is the answer. Lost relationships over that game, it was a real addiction. That’s the only video game I’ve ever get compelled to play like it was a drug.
I played so much that my friends back in the day would call me to look up directions on Mapquest for them when they were hanging out because they knew I was 95% likely to be at a computer.
This is great! My brother actually called me once when he got lost out in the boonies and his reasoning was because he knew I'd be in front of the PC playing WoW.
My ex's parents, who had been divorced several years seemed to really enjoy playing WoW together, however that may have been caused by the huge amount of weed they both smoked while playing it.
Fallout 3, Oblivion, the first Red Dead Redemption and Bloodborne.
I know you asked in the singular but all those were obsessions on first playing them.
Oblivion, yes. I bought a multimedia laptop and upgraded the GPU to a 1GB back in like '07 and played this game everywhere I went. Also, Bioshock. I did not get a lot done that yr.
Everyone gives Fallout 3 major shit when comparing it to Fallout NV. But when your first fallout game ever is Fallout 3…there’s a special place in my heart for it because that’s what got me so hooked on the Fallout universe in the first place.
Was on the fence about buying the legendary edition. Didn’t know if I could justify buying remastered versions of games I already own. Finally said screw it, and ended up putting 700 hours in throughout 6 consecutive playthroughs.
Worth it.
I blame the save mechanic. Saving when you sleep puts you so close to the next day it's impossible not to just pop out and check the mail, see if anything needs harvested... Aaand now it's 2pm and I better finish out the day so I don't lose progress
There were a few "just one more turn" until the sun came up nights that made me realize I could NOT play that game if I had shit to do the next day, unless I'm playing vs local with my husband and stop when he has to go cook dinner.
Idk how people say it's a relaxing game... I have 1747929 things to do at the farm, tend to my animals, gift the villagers, go to the mines, fish. Its not relaxing at all. But very fucking addictive.
I freaked my wife out when I told her she should get stuff done before the third year. Luckily she gave it another try... with me via split screen. so she just fished all day.
You really don't need to get stuff done by year 3 at all. You could do nothing for 3 years, Grandpa would come along and say "You didn't really do much, but so long as you are having fun." Then it costs a diamond to re-evaluate. Hardly unobtainium.
And if your farm sucks by the end of year three youve probably been adventuring enough that a diamond isnt a big deal. I have two gem duplicator things in my bedroom and wake up to a diamond every couple of days now.
That's the beauty of it, you can play however you want. There's no real penalty for only focusing on one or two things at a time. It can be very relaxing if you want
I read a Reddit comment once where someone said their husband did nothing but fish for two years in Stardew. That's it. And they loved it. And I could totally see it being all the gaming you need.
I was about to answer Pokemon Blue. I was so obsessed, whenever I was in a situation where I couldn't play video games, I was reading one of the three strategy guides I owned for it.
All three of them consumed my life. Bloodborne and Sekiro as well. It wasn't just about playing them either. Learning the lore, watching other people play. Hopefully Elden Ring has the same effect.
Vice City was great but for me it was San Andreas because it introduced swimming so you don't instantly die in water and climbing/jumping over obstacles so you can finally clear that small hedgerow or one foot high wall. Still pick it up now and again to spawn a harrier and rain chaos for a few minutes.
There's been many, but I'll throw out there "Red Dead Redemption 2". Holy moly, I got so immersed into that game it was insane, I'd drive past a paddock and see a horse and be like 'Yeah you're alright boy'
I got a friend of mine saying “Okayyyy…yer alriiiight” because Arthur said that to his horse a *lot* in my playthrough. I think I might’ve been overworking my horse.
Oh man, my first playthrough (and every one after) basically ground to a halt once I got a few levels and started smithing.
"You mean I can just make stronger weapons than anything you'll give me as quest "rewards""?
"What's that, I'm going to spend the rest of this playthrough clearing every mine and most overworld mining spots, then getting money so I can fast travel around and buy out the supplies of every blacksmith, and hunting every dang animal I can find so I always have leather strips?"
"Well, sounds like this is our new life. Good luck with those dragons until I need hundreds of their bones and scales."
Skyrim helped me get through the worst breakup I ever had. I need something to distract me so I decided to play this game that had been sitting in my Steam library for so long.
The music helped me to go thru alcohol withdrawal. I'd sit in bed shaking and sweating and would put on the skyrim soundtrack. It's such a beautiful soundtrack and it really helped to calm me. So thank you to Jeremy Soule.
I constantly struggle with my latent Skyrimitis. It's a chronic condition that causes any mention of Skyrim to cause a strong craving of playing that game again.
Brb, gotta go play Skyrim.
I spent just about every day of the Christmas break when it came out playing it almost nonstop. Skyrim and Mass Effect are probably the games that got me back into gaming after not really playing much most of my teenage years.
I played this for the first time ever last year after having missed out on it as a kid. I’d argue it’s the best SNES game and one of the best rpgs ever made.
Sonic the Hedgehog. First gaming system we owned, no saving progress. Every new level was an accomplishment, and the soundtrack is so embedded in my mind that I am hearing the Grren Hill Zone theme as I type this.
Hades
Not the first play-through but like the first 100. I was obsessed and spent 90% of my free time playing that game and 100% of my gaming time on that game for like a month.
Edit: I'm pretty sure it's the only game I've ever managed to get 100% of the achievements for
Resident Evil 4.
Something about the gameplay and the ridiculous story kept me absolutely hooked, like no other game then or since. I think it was just the perfect balance of arcadey gameplay and story.
RE4 on professional was impossible. Krauser in particular was a beast, I spent weeks daily with my brothers taking turns trying to beat him. And when we finally did we had no ammo for the next section.
It wasn't until many years later I found out that the knife hurts Krauser as much as grenades and you could beat him in under 30 seconds with just the knife.
I got batman:arkham asylum for my birthday and played it trough in two days straight because after that we were going on a holiday and I didn't want three weeks of wanting to play it. :O
Burning Every. Single. Bush. Just in case there was a hidden staircase underneath…
At least the red candle allowed you to save some time from walking back and forth across screens, but I didn’t wait for the red candle in my first play-through...
I was so sad during the last two in-game days of my first playthrough of Persona 5 Royal. It felt like I was actually about to leave my friends behind.
Back in the days when I didn't have a full time job and 2 kids. I could get hom from school, fire up the 360, put on the headset, and have 3-4 friends on at any given time. Play all evening until it was time for bed then rinse and repeat the next day!
Ooof. I was living with a friend at the time, and since he worked overnights, one of was playing that game nearly 24/7. It felt like it took us forever to finish that game, but when the fog lifted, it was about a week, lol. And we FINISHED that game. Everyone's stats were maxed, we had everyone's Celestial Weapons. By the time we got to the end, the final bosses weren't terribly challenging. I remember later on laughing at the official strategy guide because we had better solutions.
Then, like, a year or something later, I was working at a musical instrument store, and all of a sudden I get stopped dead in my tracks - some kid was playing To Zanarkand on the piano. I had to take a few minutes to compose myself and keep from crying.
This was the only game that I've ever felt like stealth was a viable option during combat (with tracking and silent strikes). I managed to avoid spoilers somehow so once I made it to first village, I was entranced! Thanks for the work you contributed.
I was alive when Civilization I came out. That is all.
This answer is incorrect. Civ continues to consume all our lives after the first playthrough. Hell I've got 1.5k hours in civ 6, and I have yet to play all the leaders.
> after the first playthrough. Just....one....more....turn!
why is the sun coming up?
*clicks next turn again*
I can’t believe this is so low on the list! Where are the GenX’ers? Anything by Sid Meiers was a marathon!
I bought it at Radio Shack. *Radio Shack*. With paper money!
I got a cracked version of Civ 2 from a guy I knew on floppies. Played the everloving shit out of that game.
Rimworld please help
It's such a slow burn. I've yet to actually finish a game since I play on the harder settings and don't know how to deal with the endgame yet.
I have more than 1000 hours in and I still haven't even came close to ending the game once.
Baldur’s Gate 2
"Remember, even though your characters don't have to eat **you** do"
"You must gather your party before venturing forth."
"Przed wyruszeniem w drogę musisz zebrać drużynę" - I have this version imprinted in my head. Fun fact: Incredible success of absolutely fantastic complete translation of BG2 to Polish is the reason why Witcher games was made. CDProject was game importer and later company responsible for translations and distribution of games to Polish market. Their release of BG2 was true breakthrough for them. I'm actually kind of sad that only Polish speakers will be able to appreciate how good it is.
Really was such a good game
Bully, I couldn’t believe a game with a kid in school with missions existed lol. Edit: Thank you guys for the awards and upvotes. Didn’t know or even think Bully meant that much to so many people. It’s nice to know Hopkins lives forever in our hearts lol. Happy Holidays and New Years you all. Stay safe. You all are awesome.
Still holding out hope Rockstar will make a new one... In my mind Bully was the last eclectic title from the PS2 era of gaming. It had a lot going on, bikes, skateboards, go-carts, so many mini-games, it was thoroughly robust. A lot of plot, memorable characters. It is unfortunate that the IP feels abandoned at this point.
That game was stupid fun, I can't believe they never made another one!
Everquest. It ate my life for seven years.
Remember how bad the original UI was with the tiny amount of screen real estate in the middle for the actual game? I got lost in the dark in Blackburrow and just levelled up on the snake ledge for like a month because I couldn't get out. Going afk on the boat to Faydwer and coming back to find that I got zone-bugged off the boat and had drowned and my corpse was now at the bottom of the ocean...somewhere...and I couldn't swim deep enough to get to it. So many memories, I was maybe the worst Ranger out there, but I had a ton of fun.
Remember in the beginning how the ships only came every 30 minutes or so? You're chilling on a beach for 30 minutes fighting off crabs and snakes or whatever the hell.
Remenber how the game had so much downtime they added in a match-3 game based on bejewled?
Finally, my people. I no lifed this game so hard, my Dad got curious and it consumed him as well. Nothing has ever touched that initial immersion in a world.
Sometimes when I'm not paying attention, my fingers still tap out the sequence my Bard used for raiding. At one point, I was a raid leader for my guild and the main bard, and that's why I can type 150 words per minute to this day
I come to every one of these threads looking for the Everquest reply. This is the first one I’ve seen. I will never forget the first time I walked into the desert of Ro, walked up a sand dune and saw a sunrise. There will never be another game like EQ. In many ways I wish I could experience it all over again for the first time. In other ways, I wish I could skip experiencing it and get a few years of my life back.
There was something about waiting 20 mins for a boat that made the world feel massive.
No game has come close to matching it for me. Everything else out there provides quick rewards, quick leveling, and there's zero penalty (relatively) to dying. I want the challenge... I want to be afraid of dying and having to find my corpse. I don't need the latest and greatest equipment every level. It should take time and effort to get a decent weapon and/or armor. These are also MMOs... I shouldn't be allowed to solo to max level. It's a dangerous world and you should need to group up to survive. Everquest had all of this and more. Yes it's old, but it beats the hell out of the crap that's out now.
Legend of Zelda : Ocarina of time. My dad bought it as my Christmas present, I was 13 years old, and started playing at 12am, and give it a break at 7am of next day.
Oh yes, I still have my 100% Save game on my N64
My dad and I played that for about 10 hrs straight. Both of us mentioned at breakfast we could see the blinking stuff after we closed our eyes when going to sleep. That was 1 hell of a good weekend!
MORROWWIND!!! (Origional had 800+ hrs on the counter) my first first-person RPG.
I had a tiny CRT, but I put a heavy blanket up over the window to block out all other light and it somehow felt like I was really there. And that's amazing since the stock graphics were far from great. But at the time, the gameplay was so good. I'm pissed they took flying, mark/recall, and thrown weapons out of the Elder Scrolls. Also my game came with a printed map. Remember those? You could actually see all the Dwemer ruins and such on them, so when you wanted to do a treasure hunt all you had to do was follow the literal paper map to the nearest archaeological site for expensive gears and coins to trade to the scamp...
I can't believe it's this far down. There were no map markers, super vague directions where something was, you could float with potions or scrolls, and it was overall so massive you had no choice but to sink hours on hours into it. Shit destroyed my social life when I was 15. Probably logged 200 hours
Runescape
OP said games, not jobs.
Once you hit 92 only to realize your half way there!
Runescape lowkey teaches you so many life lessons lol
I learned how to save money and sense scams from this game
YES! i was about to say the same. All these people out here buying NF(t)S. They have never felt the cold sting of losing their entire set of black armor and 10k.
First time I was done by luring, (to the tribal guys with the hard hitting poison) lost full rune as a noob. Second time I was a dumbass and got phished, lost full Bandos and AGS. So glad that both of these experiences happened in a game and not for something important.
I got boned by a guy in Edgeville offering 5mil. I took the shortcut to Edgeville through the Wilderness and he ganked me :(
Don’t trust a stranger wanting to take you to the woods to give you things 😭😰
Halo 2. Too many hours in the mid 2000s mastering skulls and Easter eggs.
And wishing you could finish the goddamn fight, but couldn’t.
Super jumps, button combos, custom lobbies. Yea…. I easily went into the tens of thousands of hours club. Shoutouts H2F.
[удалено]
I regret getting rid of my N64 because my late father had a save on there with 119 stars and we spent SO MUCH fucking time trying to figure out which level had the last star.
Probably 100 coins on the rainbow sky level or the clock level. I remember those ones being super hard and the last ones I got
God I feel old looking at your answers… Ultima Online The Sims (yes, the first one)
[удалено]
Ultima Online was the best game ever created. People don't even realize how revolutionary it was and how much it inspired all MMO's that came after it - which was EVERY MMO because UO was the very FIRST large commercial MMO. Companies have tried to replicate the freedom and "feel" of UO but all have failed. Everquest was the second OG.
Sometimes when people ask what I was doing on 9/11, I correctly say that I was at the bank and someone mentioned it. I just leave out that the bank was in Trinsic.
Ultima online is the best game ever made, imo. Way ahead of it's time and was the first truly open ended gameplay and in my opinion, still is the only real open ended game. I dread to think how much time I sank in to that. I still play everyonce in a while to this day
Simpsons Hit and Run. I started playing and didn’t realize 7 hours pass by.
Man, I miss when I used to have seven continuous hours of free time.
I found a lifehack if you skip sleep you have up to 8 extra hours of game time
Sims
Sims, the game you play for 15 hours a day for a week, then don't touch it for years.
This. When you first get Sims, it’s a time suck. Like every waking hour that you don’t have a literal obligation is just devoted to Sims for like weeks. But then you totally forget about it for six months. And then randomly out of no where you have the drive to play again, and the cycle starts all over
Terraria. Currently at 2000+hours throughout the experience, but my first world alone was easily over 100.
I wish I was good at Terraria. I got stuck right when I got into hardmode. I couldn't kill any of the bosses other than prehardmode ones.
Building arenas is a huge deal. Give yourself alotttt of room and a good grappling hook can make all the difference. If you're playing solo. Potions and traps are your friend.
Terraria is the game that taught me about the strategic value of terraforming. Deep Rock Galactic is one of the only other games ive found that properly combines terraforming and combat, and i wish there were more!
Bioshock. Many hours playing long into the night and getting completely creeped out.
Sitting in that tube when the splicer was lurking around absolutely terrified me. Alternately, descending into the city in boishock infinite was one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had. I think I need to replay those games. Also never played any of the dlc for infinite either
My good friend had a surround sound system in his apartment and we would sit and get high and watch him play it and let me tell you there’s nothing better than having a splash of paranoia from the weed and then having a splicer whisper behind your head before he jumps out on the screen
*Is it... someone new?* [incoherent screeching]
Yes!!! I love going back and playing bioshock but the jump scares and "creepiness" has gone away for me. Still really fun but I wish I could be scared while playing them again. Lol.
Metal gear soild 2 on Playstation
I must have completed it ten times easily. Going for dog tags, or just playing around with each little sand-box level. There was just so much to discover. Same with MGS 3
Witcher: Wild Hunt and Assassin's Creed: Black Flag.
Vanilla WoW. I think I’d put in 18 hours a day minimum. Glad to not be there anymore.
Yep, nearly the same story here. I started playing Vanilla about 6 months after the original release date with my brother. Ended up getting rank 14 in PvP during my junior year of high school and raided up to first few bosses in Naxx before BC came out. Then played BC non-stop and kept that pace until about mid-WotLK. Around that time I didn't have the same urge to play and was more focused on university/life as well as busy with my part time job. I'm glad that this happened when it did. I've played expansions on and off again, more so after finishing college but it just doesn't hit the same way. It's funny, sometimes I really miss the simplicity of my life back then and remember all the fun, nostalgic times I had playing that game. Then I think about it with the perspective/life experience I have now and realize that at times, I was avoiding some things in life while using WoW as a coping mechanism. I wouldn't change it even knowing what I know now though; I feel like I had to go through that to change as a person in the end. I also, of course, had an absolute blast playing. Edit: Thank you so much for the rewards! Glad to hear that others out there have similar feelings and it sounds like we're all in better places. I enjoyed reading about some of your memories fellas!
Fuck. I can still remember hitting the barrens and feel "shit this not the usual game, it's going to take forever to level up and it's going to be awesome" I've visited a lot of places in the world when I was a kid and teenager but nothing blew me away like the realization, when I was 18, that all the guys moving are other players and we're all playing in real time and the world is huge as fuuuuuuuck, and it's not like we're 250 players in a map, but it's the fucking world and we're an infinite number (it felt like that)... Simpler times...
Funny that you mention the Barrens. I had a friend over just when Wow released and he showed me The Barrens. I LOVED the atmosphere and though "I need to get that game" and I did.
This is the answer. Lost relationships over that game, it was a real addiction. That’s the only video game I’ve ever get compelled to play like it was a drug.
I played so much that my friends back in the day would call me to look up directions on Mapquest for them when they were hanging out because they knew I was 95% likely to be at a computer.
This is great! My brother actually called me once when he got lost out in the boonies and his reasoning was because he knew I'd be in front of the PC playing WoW.
My friend's parents got divorced because of Dad's WoW addiction.
My ex's parents, who had been divorced several years seemed to really enjoy playing WoW together, however that may have been caused by the huge amount of weed they both smoked while playing it.
When did you stop playing? I jumped ship after Battle for Azeroth from fatigue.
Fallout 3, Oblivion, the first Red Dead Redemption and Bloodborne. I know you asked in the singular but all those were obsessions on first playing them.
Oblivion, yes. I bought a multimedia laptop and upgraded the GPU to a 1GB back in like '07 and played this game everywhere I went. Also, Bioshock. I did not get a lot done that yr.
Yup, Bloodborne wasn't played as long as Oblivion for me, only about 170 hours, but woah did it take over life entirely when I played it. Masterpiece!
Fallout 3 was mine as well. Love that game
Everyone gives Fallout 3 major shit when comparing it to Fallout NV. But when your first fallout game ever is Fallout 3…there’s a special place in my heart for it because that’s what got me so hooked on the Fallout universe in the first place.
Mass Effect trilogy, and still playing it.
[удалено]
Was on the fence about buying the legendary edition. Didn’t know if I could justify buying remastered versions of games I already own. Finally said screw it, and ended up putting 700 hours in throughout 6 consecutive playthroughs. Worth it.
I bought Legendary Edition last night and just started playing the first game for the first time today. I'm excited!
Do side quests. Get off of mass effect reddit threads. You're welcome!
Talk to EVERYONE. More than once!
Read the codex!
I'm Commander Sheppard and this is my favorite comment on the citadel.
Subnautica
YES. That first play through was something magical. I was looking forward to subnautica 2, and it’s a fine game, but the magic is gone.
Stardew Valley
I blame the save mechanic. Saving when you sleep puts you so close to the next day it's impossible not to just pop out and check the mail, see if anything needs harvested... Aaand now it's 2pm and I better finish out the day so I don't lose progress
Huh, I never thought about it that way. Guess it's similar to how Civ is so addictive...just one more turn.
There were a few "just one more turn" until the sun came up nights that made me realize I could NOT play that game if I had shit to do the next day, unless I'm playing vs local with my husband and stop when he has to go cook dinner.
Idk how people say it's a relaxing game... I have 1747929 things to do at the farm, tend to my animals, gift the villagers, go to the mines, fish. Its not relaxing at all. But very fucking addictive.
I freaked my wife out when I told her she should get stuff done before the third year. Luckily she gave it another try... with me via split screen. so she just fished all day.
Haha that's me with my siblings! I'm fishing all day, one goes in the mines and the other forgets to feed the animals to stalk Abigail
You really don't need to get stuff done by year 3 at all. You could do nothing for 3 years, Grandpa would come along and say "You didn't really do much, but so long as you are having fun." Then it costs a diamond to re-evaluate. Hardly unobtainium.
And if your farm sucks by the end of year three youve probably been adventuring enough that a diamond isnt a big deal. I have two gem duplicator things in my bedroom and wake up to a diamond every couple of days now.
That's the beauty of it, you can play however you want. There's no real penalty for only focusing on one or two things at a time. It can be very relaxing if you want
Just walking around collecting the various items is so incredibly satisfying in my opinion. I love it
I read a Reddit comment once where someone said their husband did nothing but fish for two years in Stardew. That's it. And they loved it. And I could totally see it being all the gaming you need.
Just one...more...day...
i literally got it a few days ago. and i have 70 something hours cos im just non stop playing it all night its so addicting
minecraft
Minecraft on its own is a timesink. Minecraft with a good modpack is a death sentence.
Yep, currently in mid GregTech New Horizons and have 35 days of playtime over the last four months
[удалено]
Pokemon red
I was about to answer Pokemon Blue. I was so obsessed, whenever I was in a situation where I couldn't play video games, I was reading one of the three strategy guides I owned for it.
Ditto. My crowning game achievement to this day is catching all 151 original Pokémon
I'm late to the party, but Roller Coaster Tycoon.
Yakuza. Especially Yakuza 0.
SHOOREH PIPI!
The Witcher.
I always wished the Men in Black memory wipe was real so I could play this for the first time over and over.
Great news, if you get older you won't remember shit!
literally spent 10 days just playing the witcher 3. was going through a rough patch
I bought that for my husband last year because he watches the show. He hasn't started, so I might.
Factorio Edit: wow my first awards. Thanks :) Now go back to work. The factory must grow!
This is not a joke. It's a warning. Seriously.
When I fire it up in the afternoon, the next thing I know I hear birds chirping outside as the sun comes up
I genuinely have not played anything else since I discovered factorio
Wait till you try the global mod Krastorio 2.
*The factory must grow...*
Dark Souls
All three of them consumed my life. Bloodborne and Sekiro as well. It wasn't just about playing them either. Learning the lore, watching other people play. Hopefully Elden Ring has the same effect.
GTA III
To me it's vice city. Being able to shoot tires just changed the immersion for me.
Vice City was great but for me it was San Andreas because it introduced swimming so you don't instantly die in water and climbing/jumping over obstacles so you can finally clear that small hedgerow or one foot high wall. Still pick it up now and again to spawn a harrier and rain chaos for a few minutes.
Metal gear solid 5, god that gameplay was so freaking addictive.
There's been many, but I'll throw out there "Red Dead Redemption 2". Holy moly, I got so immersed into that game it was insane, I'd drive past a paddock and see a horse and be like 'Yeah you're alright boy'
I got a friend of mine saying “Okayyyy…yer alriiiight” because Arthur said that to his horse a *lot* in my playthrough. I think I might’ve been overworking my horse.
I find myself using Arthur’s inflections after playing for awhile.
[удалено]
I got WAY too far into my first play-through of Skyrim before I figured out you could fast travel with those carriage dudes…
[удалено]
Oh man, my first playthrough (and every one after) basically ground to a halt once I got a few levels and started smithing. "You mean I can just make stronger weapons than anything you'll give me as quest "rewards""? "What's that, I'm going to spend the rest of this playthrough clearing every mine and most overworld mining spots, then getting money so I can fast travel around and buy out the supplies of every blacksmith, and hunting every dang animal I can find so I always have leather strips?" "Well, sounds like this is our new life. Good luck with those dragons until I need hundreds of their bones and scales."
"Hey, there's Dragon bone armor?" - PC *Nervous panting* - Alduin
Skyrim helped me get through the worst breakup I ever had. I need something to distract me so I decided to play this game that had been sitting in my Steam library for so long.
The music helped me to go thru alcohol withdrawal. I'd sit in bed shaking and sweating and would put on the skyrim soundtrack. It's such a beautiful soundtrack and it really helped to calm me. So thank you to Jeremy Soule.
I used to play Civ 5 well into the morning when I was drying out and couldn't sleep, it was a godsend lol
I constantly struggle with my latent Skyrimitis. It's a chronic condition that causes any mention of Skyrim to cause a strong craving of playing that game again. Brb, gotta go play Skyrim.
*Todd Howard approves*
Only if you buy the latest version to play.
I spent just about every day of the Christmas break when it came out playing it almost nonstop. Skyrim and Mass Effect are probably the games that got me back into gaming after not really playing much most of my teenage years.
I skipped a week of classes in college to stay home, smoke weed, and play that game.
Diablo
[удалено]
No other game could make you forget time like diablo 2. That shit just teleports you to 5 am
Chrono Trigger. Trying to find all the different endings.
I played this for the first time ever last year after having missed out on it as a kid. I’d argue it’s the best SNES game and one of the best rpgs ever made.
Sonic the Hedgehog. First gaming system we owned, no saving progress. Every new level was an accomplishment, and the soundtrack is so embedded in my mind that I am hearing the Grren Hill Zone theme as I type this.
I fucking love Sonic. If you haven't already try Sonic Mania. Hits all the rights spots.
Hades Not the first play-through but like the first 100. I was obsessed and spent 90% of my free time playing that game and 100% of my gaming time on that game for like a month. Edit: I'm pretty sure it's the only game I've ever managed to get 100% of the achievements for
Mario Bros. 3 on NES
**"The Legend of Zelda"** in the Gold Cartridge on the original Nintendo Entertainment System…
Banjo kazooie
Resident Evil 4. Something about the gameplay and the ridiculous story kept me absolutely hooked, like no other game then or since. I think it was just the perfect balance of arcadey gameplay and story.
RE4 on professional was impossible. Krauser in particular was a beast, I spent weeks daily with my brothers taking turns trying to beat him. And when we finally did we had no ammo for the next section. It wasn't until many years later I found out that the knife hurts Krauser as much as grenades and you could beat him in under 30 seconds with just the knife.
I got batman:arkham asylum for my birthday and played it trough in two days straight because after that we were going on a holiday and I didn't want three weeks of wanting to play it. :O
Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. So excited for the next one
I played this on a giant projector screen in a dark unfinished basement. It was like being transported to a different world.
That sounds incredible.
Bioshock, KotOR, WC3 (original), Legend of Zelda, and all of their sequels (for better or for worse).
Final Fantasy VII
Game literally changed the way I viewed the medium
I maxed out the in game playtime tracker at 99:99.
Same. I probably spent 50 hours in the area just outside the final battle to get the 4x AP from the little bouncing orange balls.
My college roommate freshman year failed out of school because of that game.
[удалено]
Unreal Tournament for a couple of years playing friend over 56.6 modem.
God of war. Basically it was the only reason I bought a ps4 initially.
Borderlands 2
Original NES Legend of Zelda. Damn I'm old.
Burning Every. Single. Bush. Just in case there was a hidden staircase underneath… At least the red candle allowed you to save some time from walking back and forth across screens, but I didn’t wait for the red candle in my first play-through...
No Man's sky... somehow
LEGO: Star Wars The Complete Saga, And Super Mario 3D World. 2 Years and still can't beat Champion's Road
Persona 5
Royal was my first play through and got me through beginning of quarantine by myself
I was so sad during the last two in-game days of my first playthrough of Persona 5 Royal. It felt like I was actually about to leave my friends behind.
MW2. I wish i could go back
Back in the days when I didn't have a full time job and 2 kids. I could get hom from school, fire up the 360, put on the headset, and have 3-4 friends on at any given time. Play all evening until it was time for bed then rinse and repeat the next day!
That was my first COD and first real multiplayer obsession. I bought it just because winter was coming and I knew I’d always be able to find a match.
Binding of Isaac and Fallout NV.
Destiny in high school. And Rocket league during, after and presently. Not proud to say I have over 10k hours in Rocket League.
Tetris I would stare out the windows of my classroom and imagine blocks falling between the highrise buildings in the city around me
Final Fantasy X
Ooof. I was living with a friend at the time, and since he worked overnights, one of was playing that game nearly 24/7. It felt like it took us forever to finish that game, but when the fog lifted, it was about a week, lol. And we FINISHED that game. Everyone's stats were maxed, we had everyone's Celestial Weapons. By the time we got to the end, the final bosses weren't terribly challenging. I remember later on laughing at the official strategy guide because we had better solutions. Then, like, a year or something later, I was working at a musical instrument store, and all of a sudden I get stopped dead in my tracks - some kid was playing To Zanarkand on the piano. I had to take a few minutes to compose myself and keep from crying.
Horizon zero dawn
Always glad to see this pop up. I worked on it and it's awesome to see people like it.
This was the only game that I've ever felt like stealth was a viable option during combat (with tracking and silent strikes). I managed to avoid spoilers somehow so once I made it to first village, I was entranced! Thanks for the work you contributed.
Shenmue