What Video Games do you Play Over and Over Again?

[Abe Sargent]

I don't know what it is. I know every plot element, every corner, every line, but there are a few games that I will play over and over again. Are there any plot-based games that you do that with? Obviously games where they are designed to be replayable, like Civ or EU3 or FOF aren't really what I'm talking about.

For example, I've played Evil Genius 5 times now (my most recent was about six weeks ago). I just finished the Enhanced Edition of BG2 and TOB, which means the third time for each. I just did KOTOR2 again last week for the 2nd time.

But games like Final Fantasy? Star Control 2? Might and Magic VI? Wasteland? At least five or six times each game.

It's like a novel you've read over and over again.

What are some games you just keep coming back to?

[bhlloy]

BG2:SOA and the original Deus Ex are the only games that fall into that category for me, but I go back to them at least once every two years

[Izulde]

The Dragon Age series and Jade Empire are the only ones that immediately come to mind. Elder Scrolls gets quite a few starts, but never completed, so I'm not sure if that counts.

[Radii]

Only Multiplayer games for me. I spent thousands of hours playing Everquest, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends.

How much time I wasted on League of Legends ? (http://wastedonlol.com/na-rhiow/)

I don't know how this is calculated (total games x avg game length maybe?), but it says I've spent 2700 hours playing League over the last 4 years. I find that plausible.


I love single player games and games that tell a good story, but once I've completed the story, I am no longer interested. I cannot think of a single exception to this over the last 25 years of gaming.

[cartman]

I still run through Half-Life 2 every now and again.

[sabotai]

Final Fantasy 1-10, Skyrim and Fallout 3. Those are the ones I still go back to. The Call of Duty games, Half-Life games, GTAs I have in the past played through several times as well, although I rarely go back to them anymore.

[lighthousekeeper]

DOTA2. I started playing 14 months ago after seeing a thread on this board, and I've logged ~1000 hours since then. I love the game and don't see my interest waning any time soon. Game is so challenging.

[SackAttack]

Mass Effect, Persona 4 Golden, Knights of the Old Republic (though it's been a while on that one).

Disgaea. Oh, god, Disgaea.

[sterlingice]

I've played Final Fantasy 4 and Chrono Trigger a half dozen times each, but they keep getting released on other platforms so I've probably spread that 6 times across 3 or 4 different versions of the game.

There are some NES games that I'll just pick up and beat or just play as far as I can get from time to time: Super Mario Bros 3, Mike Tyson's Punch Out, and Contra all come to mind.

SI

[Edward64]

I think the winner here are Pirates (mid-2000's), Space Rangers and Skyrim.

The latest version of Pirates (mid 2000's) was the first video game my son played and we played together and watching over each others shoulders. He's graduated to COD but I still get the urge once in a while with the old CD.

Space Rangers series. I really enjoy the early part of the game so I don't necessarily finish the game but play it a lot.

Son and I have played Skyrim a couple times thru the main plot and a lot of DLC's now. No more DLC's, ready for the next iteration.


The wish they were, the contenders include

X-com - got my money's worth but wish it had more openness
Civ - played the early version a lot but never got into 4 or 5 that much

[CraigSca]

Only Multiplayer games for me. I spent thousands of hours playing Everquest, World of Warcraft, and League of Legends.

How much time I wasted on League of Legends ? (http://wastedonlol.com/na-rhiow/)

I don't know how this is calculated (total games x avg game length maybe?), but it says I've spent 2700 hours playing League over the last 4 years. I find that plausible.


I love single player games and games that tell a good story, but once I've completed the story, I am no longer interested. I cannot think of a single exception to this over the last 25 years of gaming.

/agree

I went back to Everquest as of yesterday. Hardly know what I'm doing anymore, but it's like an old friend. A lot of memories.

[Blackadar]

Replaying story-driven games and not MMOs or Strategy games? I've done that many times with many games. BG2 was played through at least 3 times, Walking Dead a couple, KOTOR 1 and 2 multiple times, Dragon Age, ME 1 & ME 2 3 times (ME 3 twice), Fallout series so on and so forth. But usually that's done within a couple of years of release. It's rare for me to pick up a game that's 10 years old and replay it. Time has usually passed it by. But...

...PS:T would be the first that comes to mind, since I've played it at least 4-5 times all the way through over the course of close to 15 years.

[Fidatelo]

Civilization 5

[JAG]

BG II, Fallout II (still never finished it though), and PS:T are the three I've gone back to the most over the years, especially BG II with the addition of some excellent mods that improve AI, randomize where equipment is found, and so on that give the game additional life. I went back to the first gold box Dragonlance game a while back and was enjoying that, but I find myself less forgiving of UI annoyances these days which makes it tougher to go back to older games that otherwise are still great fun to play.

A more recent game would be Tales of Maj'Eyal, which although it's a roguelike actually has a plot in the main campaign. I've played about 9-10 characters in it and gone through the full game about 4 times on and off over the past couple years.

[Buccaneer]

I know you said it doesn't count but just wanted to list the extent I have been the Civilization series. I don't think there has been a quarter from 1997(?)-today that I have not played a civ game (Civ2 97-05, Civ4 05-10, Civ5 10-today).

I would also add an anecdote about Skyrim. I played for about 150 hours the first time (early 12). That's a lot of hours for me. But when got back into it late last year (with mods), I did another 200+ hours.

Strategy games in the past that I played for 5+ years include: Pharaoh, Pirates!Gold and Conquest of New World. The one action game that I have played multiple times is Mafia 1&2 despite having little replay value. They're that good, for me.

[mckerney]

I play way too much Dota 2. Left 4 Dead 2 is probably the other game that would qualify as a game I've played over and over.

[Warhammer]

Dominions Series
Torchlight 2
Nethack
Star Control 2

Currently staying sane on job hunt with League of Legends.

[Ironhead]

Mass Effect triology (all the way through 4 times + over 500 hours in ME3 multiplayer) and Dragon Age

[Vince, Pt. II]

River City Ransom
Final Fantasy IV (2 over here in the states)
Final Fantasy VI (3 in the US)
Chrono Trigger (might have played this one ten or more times)
Half Life 2
Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen
Shadowrun (SNES version)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Playstation)
Super Metroid

[CAsterling]

Oblivion with all the DLC and OOO applied makes it extremely replayable to me.
I prefer it to Skyrim.

[TroyF]

I rarely "replay" video games, but here are the ones I have done it with:

Half Life 2
Bioshock (1 and 2, I don't think Infinate had that hold on me)
Just Cause 2 (I keep coming back to it every so often. Really fun game)

[Draft Dodger]

I don't replay story games, but will restart games I never finished if it's been a long time.

here are some games I've half-completed at least twice
Planescape
Morrowind
Oblivion
System Shock 2 (this one I was probably 95% done both times)

I'll soon be adding Mass Effect to this list, as I stalled out on the first run through and can't remember anything about it. That's if I ever finish Fallout Vegas and The Witcher 1, of course.

there are a few games that I've actually finished and have considered replaying:
The COD games (I like the single player campaigns)
Baldur's Gate (so that I could restart and finally finish BG2)

[mckerney]

I love single player games and games that tell a good story, but once I've completed the story, I am no longer interested. I cannot think of a single exception to this over the last 25 years of gaming.

This is how I've been lately. I do have several games I've played through multiple times, off the top of my head System Shock 2, Deus Ex, Half-Life 1 & 2 + Episodes, WarCraft III, Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect 1 & 2, but it's been a while for any of those. But aside from playing Costume Quest every Halloween I haven't replayed anything in a few years.

For me personally right now there's just too many games I have I haven't finished yet to go and replay something else.

[A-Husker-4-Life]

Terraria
Civ4 BTS
TCY
BG2
SIMCity 4
MOO2

I'm really enjoying Banished at the moment and I could see it being part of my list in the future.

[Umbrella]

I still go back to Valkyria Chronicles on occasion. And I have to admit I still play the '09 version of The Show every year.

[PackerFanatic]

Earthbound.

Easily in my top 5 of all-time favorites and it never gets old.

[cartman]

Microsoft's Flight Simulator

:D

[PilotMan]

:D


LMAO! Funny thing is after I got my instrument rating I completely quit with all that. Just didn't have the same interest for it after I could do it for real.

I don't have any games that I keep coming back to. I have a hard enough time trying to get through them for the first time. The games that I do come back for are designed for that, like FM, CK and so on.

I am enjoying hearing what everyone else plays though.

[stevew]

I was a huge COD fan for MW2 and Black Ops 2. Like hundreds of hours each. This most recent travesty has made me give up on the franchise.

[EagleFan]

Thanks to Steam I really have no one game that I return to (that would count in this discussion). I have a backlog of Steam games that pretty much allows me to maybe try a game that I never really got into before or try one that has just been sitting in the library untouched.

I've actually been in a different frame of mind lately as there are plenty of games that I never finished (I swear that I have ADD sometimes and move from one shiny object to the next). Have finally been trying to finish some games that I started. Just finished Uncharted 3 relatively recently (was at one spot that finally got me overly frustrated enough to stop playing and a little while back decided to start from square one and got all the way through), just finished The Last of Us yesterday, next up will probably be Mass Effect (this time going with a PC game to finish instead of PS3).

[Vince, Pt. II]

Earthbound.

Easily in my top 5 of all-time favorites and it never gets old.

I've played Earthbound about 60% of the way through about 7 times. I've never actually finished it. I don't know what it is, but I just lose a bunch of steam around Summers, fart along for a bit longer and then putter out. Not sure if I've ever been past Stonehenge.

[Abe Sargent]

Thanks to Steam I really have no one game that I return to (that would count in this discussion). I have a backlog of Steam games that pretty much allows me to maybe try a game that I never really got into before or try one that has just been sitting in the library untouched.

I've actually been in a different frame of mind lately as there are plenty of games that I never finished (I swear that I have ADD sometimes and move from one shiny object to the next). Have finally been trying to finish some games that I started. Just finished Uncharted 3 relatively recently (was at one spot that finally got me overly frustrated enough to stop playing and a little while back decided to start from square one and got all the way through), just finished The Last of Us yesterday, next up will probably be Mass Effect (this time going with a PC game to finish instead of PS3).

Not necessarily ADD. It could be your personality type. For example, people who are Es on the Myers-Briggs TI tend to be serial obsessers - they will move to one thing, really invest some time with it, and then move on to the next thing after a few days, weeks or months to the next obsession. That's me too!

[sterlingice]

I've played Earthbound about 60% of the way through about 7 times. I've never actually finished it. I don't know what it is, but I just lose a bunch of steam around Summers, fart along for a bit longer and then putter out. Not sure if I've ever been past Stonehenge.

I've actually never beat Earthbound. I have a copy I bought a while ago for a reasonable amount ($50 at the time, I think) but I never played through it. I have it on my phone with an SNES emu now, tho, and am a couple of hours in.

SI

[frnk55]

Morrowind, Civ5 and OOTP are some that come to mind.

[mckerney]

I've actually been in a different frame of mind lately as there are plenty of games that I never finished (I swear that I have ADD sometimes and move from one shiny object to the next). Have finally been trying to finish some games that I started. Just finished Uncharted 3 relatively recently (was at one spot that finally got me overly frustrated enough to stop playing and a little while back decided to start from square one and got all the way through), just finished The Last of Us yesterday, next up will probably be Mass Effect (this time going with a PC game to finish instead of PS3).

I was the same way for a long time, though been trying to change from that lately. I've gone back and started playing games again where I'd previously played for about 45 minutes and hadn't picked up since. Not even that I didn't like the game, I just ended up getting distracted and moving onto something else.

Been having a lot more fun since I started focusing on playing games all the way through. Still a bit of ADD being there's probably 6 games on my now playing list, but I've managed to finish about 25 games so far this year. I'm sure I'll never get through my Steam backlog I may actually finish the PS3 games I've bought at some point.

[Julio Riddols]

I'm currently playing through Shining Force 2 for about the 4th time.. I also play a lot of Madden 09 for the original XBox. Other than those, the games I usually come back to the most are game show based games like Jeopardy or sandbox games like the ones Rockstar and Bethesda have been bringing us over the past 10 years or so.

[JonInMiddleGA]

I was a huge COD fan for MW2 and Black Ops 2. Like hundreds of hours each. This most recent travesty has made me give up on the franchise.

Do those count as "over & over" though? (srsly, I not sure what does/doesn't count for the context of the question)

I mean, did you keep going back to them over long periods or did you just play the hell out of them when they were relatively fresh?

The latest iteration I'm at something like 80 hours now I think, would be more if not for the persistent lag issues that render it unplayable for me for days at a time.

[Draft Dodger]

Obviously games where they are designed to be replayable, like Civ or EU3 or FOF aren't really what I'm talking about.


I feel a lot of people missed this key point

[ColtCrazy]

I keep coming back to Skyrim. I find it fun to just explore. It's probably single-handedly keeping my Xbox One as a glorified blu ray.

Sid Meier's Pirates is one I come back to a lot as well, though I'm not sure why. Guess it's the theme. The game can get monotonous after a bit, yet I still play it.

Plants vs. Zombies (the first one) still gets play out of me. So does Snoopy's Air Patrol game (great little air combat game).

As for older games, Fable2 and Knights of the Old Republic were biggies. I played the heck out of them. There was an Xbox Indiana Jones game I played a ton of as well just because it was Indiana Jones.

[FBPro]

OOTP
MLB The Show
FOF 7
Diamond Mind

[hoosierdude]

OOTP
FOF
FBCB
TEW
Hollywood Mogul Studio
------
Tyson's Punch Out
Final Fantasy Tactics (love this one)
Nascar Heat (when I can find another working PS2)

Just a few I play alot.

[jeff061]

BG2, Deus Ex, Fallout 1 and 2 will always be my gold standard.

Actually Under a Killing Moon 1 and 2 as well.

[Buccaneer]

Since I had so much fun playing AC4, I've been wondering how I would play that over and over again? What do others do in games like this?

[stevew]

Typically I think you'd find that people play games like AC4 over to get 100% of everything complete and/or to get some achievements or something. I understand it doesn't register for normal people but hardcore gamer kids are in love with the achievements.

[Groundhog]

Fallout 3 is probably the only story-driven game I've played through a few times.

[NobodyHere]

I think I've beaten the SNES Zelda game about 10 times.

[Groundhog]

Oh yeah, Zelda 3 is a game I've finished a bunch over the decades.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Heh, I knew there was one I'd forgotten. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is one I've beaten probably 20 times.

[sterlingice]

And why not bump it with another, "yeah, Zelda: LTTP is one I've beaten quite a few times"

SI

[Poli]

Ogre Battle.

[Honolulu_Blue]

As for games with a story - as opposed to say, like, Civilization or a sports management sim - I rarely play a game more than once. In fact, I think Mass Effect 2 & 3 are the only ones I re-played.

The other game that I've played a ton of and am in the midst of my 4th, or so, play through is "Borderlands 2." I never play it solo, only with three friends, but we beat it once on the Xbox 360 and have finished it twice on the PC. We're currently doing what will be our final run in "Ultimate Vault Hunter" mode.

The game remains fun, largely because I like playing with my friends. I have to say, however, that it's a testament to the writing in that game - which, at times, is brilliant - that I still laugh after hearing the dialogue for a forth or fifth time.

[nilodor]

As far as story mode games go I would say the Uncharted series has gotten a few playthroughs as well as the mario games.

[nol]

Just the Mass Effect trilogy, and I think this phenomenon extends beyond video games for me. I'm having a hard time remembering any plot-driven movie (as opposed to something dumb like Armageddon or Battlefield Earth I've watched with friends a few times to make fun of) I've watched multiple times.

[MizzouRah]

I'm firing up Borderlands 2 on the x360 again, really love this game.