8 Games You Can Play Over and Over
- Thread starter ffronw
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We are so not the same people, you and I, which is just fine.
I think many of the games you list cheat though, in that they're designed to be played again and again and can offer substantially different experiences each time. When I think replay value it's when you can play something that remains basically unchanged again and again.
Were I to approach the question I'd go for games that stand out because they're discrete experiences that tell a defined story that I just enjoy playing so much I go back to them every couple of years at least, like Dead Space, Alan Wake, Mirror's Edge and BulletStorm (I just love the creative cursing and color, also controlling the Dinobot never gets old). These games are essentially the same each time but I never get tired of the experience, no matter how many times I repeat it. A different example would be Dark Souls in that From Software has basically given us control over how difficult the game actually is, so you can play it again and again while getting a different experience by purposefully handicapping yourself in multiple manners of your own choosing.
Edit- for forgetting Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (first one). Man, even if gigabytes of storage ever become a scarce and valuable resource I will ALWAYS have this game installed on every device that will accept it.
I think many of the games you list cheat though, in that they're designed to be played again and again and can offer substantially different experiences each time. When I think replay value it's when you can play something that remains basically unchanged again and again.
Were I to approach the question I'd go for games that stand out because they're discrete experiences that tell a defined story that I just enjoy playing so much I go back to them every couple of years at least, like Dead Space, Alan Wake, Mirror's Edge and BulletStorm (I just love the creative cursing and color, also controlling the Dinobot never gets old). These games are essentially the same each time but I never get tired of the experience, no matter how many times I repeat it. A different example would be Dark Souls in that From Software has basically given us control over how difficult the game actually is, so you can play it again and again while getting a different experience by purposefully handicapping yourself in multiple manners of your own choosing.
Edit- for forgetting Prince of Persia: Sands of Time (first one). Man, even if gigabytes of storage ever become a scarce and valuable resource I will ALWAYS have this game installed on every device that will accept it.
I get that, and I can embrace that definition, even. I find myself doing that same thing from time to time. I guess my head was in the "You can play these games over and over and have new experiences" mode rather the "These games are worth replaying because they're awesome" mode.SecondPrize said:
I think the list's inclusion of longer games with replay value is more interesting since it normally goes without saying that short games like Minesweeper have replay value. Rare is such a short game "good" without have replay built into it. Although that too would be an interesting list: "8 games you'll beat in an hour, never play again and love them for it".CaitSeith said:
The game I've replayed the most since it came out is probably Dead Rising. Once you know the layout of the mall, you can beat it in an afternoon. It has all those different endings which was nice too, and even with a plan in place there is always the possibility that a huge group of zombies will spawn in such a way that you end up having to make some creative choices on the fly.
The year it came out I played it so many times. I beat it enough to see every ending, and I earned all but two achievements. I never got the 7 day survivor because after earning 5 day survivor I thought my gen1 Xbox 360 was going to scream and die, and I never got Frank the Pimp because... well I just never did it. After the release year I continued to play it about twice a year for a while, then once a year, and then I skipped the last couple of years.
It's easily my favorite game of the 7th gen console era and one of my top 3 of all time.
The year it came out I played it so many times. I beat it enough to see every ending, and I earned all but two achievements. I never got the 7 day survivor because after earning 5 day survivor I thought my gen1 Xbox 360 was going to scream and die, and I never got Frank the Pimp because... well I just never did it. After the release year I continued to play it about twice a year for a while, then once a year, and then I skipped the last couple of years.
It's easily my favorite game of the 7th gen console era and one of my top 3 of all time.
Company of Heroes?
Good choice! ^_^
*face falls down back on the endless supply of cocaine that is Company of Heroes' Skirmish mode*
Mount & Blade Warband is also pretty beefy in the replayability department from what I hear. I know folks who have sunk in hundreds, if not thousands of hours into it with still no end in sight thanks to the way the game works and the zealous modding community.
Good choice! ^_^
*face falls down back on the endless supply of cocaine that is Company of Heroes' Skirmish mode*
Mount & Blade Warband is also pretty beefy in the replayability department from what I hear. I know folks who have sunk in hundreds, if not thousands of hours into it with still no end in sight thanks to the way the game works and the zealous modding community.
Rome : Total War should be there instead of Company of Heroes and Morrowind should be there instead of skyrim . Mount and blade , Star Wars Battlefront 2 should have been on the list but the list is still good .
You could have also mentioned some good indies , atleast as honourable mentions , like running with rifles , crypt of necrodancer , risk of rain , etc .
You could have also mentioned some good indies , atleast as honourable mentions , like running with rifles , crypt of necrodancer , risk of rain , etc .
Doom. Just... Doom.
Seriously, I've finished that game so many times on so many different systems, platforms, source ports and mods, not to mention it's multiplayer (with said source ports), it's impossible for me to get tired of Doom, a 22 year old game.
Seriously, I've finished that game so many times on so many different systems, platforms, source ports and mods, not to mention it's multiplayer (with said source ports), it's impossible for me to get tired of Doom, a 22 year old game.
For me nothing beats FTL in terms of replayabilty. The RNG nature of that game just makes the possibilities endless and its a great game if you have nothing to do and need to kill 1-2 hrs. Though like most rogue legacyish game the RNG will make you its ***** at times. At Nearly 200 hrs and I have only beaten it twice on normal and I've never even made it half way though hard mode.
Listen, Company of Heroes owns my soul. Just when I think I'm getting out, I find myself embroiled in another user-created map binge with a buddy that lasts a whole weekend. I don't know how many hours I spent on that game pre-Steam version, but I have something like 225 on Steam. I bet the real total is at least twice that, if not way more.Sigmund Av Volsung said:
Oh I know that feeling quite wellffronw said:
For some reason, I really have to see what happens when I play as the British against the Wermacht in that one map just one more time >_<
But yeah, it's crazy how much replay value it has. I think it's the slight emphasis on squad dynamics that makes not only every encounter but every fight interesting and tense.
What gets me is how well you can have two disparate armies mesh in tandem. My buddy likes to play the US airborne, and teaming them up with my British artillery is just devastating.Sigmund Av Volsung said:Oh I know that feeling quite well
For some reason, I really have to see what happens when I play as the British against the Wermacht in that one map just one more time >_<
But yeah, it's crazy how much replay value it has. I think it's the slight emphasis on squad dynamics that makes not only every encounter but every fight interesting and tense.
I can agree with that: Company of Heroes is a very tightly designed game. Shame that CoH 2 wasn't quite as good, but then again, what could top the original?ffronw said:What gets me is how well you can have two disparate armies mesh in tandem. My buddy likes to play the US airborne, and teaming them up with my British artillery is just devastating.Sigmund Av Volsung said:Oh I know that feeling quite well
For some reason, I really have to see what happens when I play as the British against the Wermacht in that one map just one more time >_<
But yeah, it's crazy how much replay value it has. I think it's the slight emphasis on squad dynamics that makes not only every encounter but every fight interesting and tense.
It's a little ironic to me how you reference Demon's/Dark Souls at the end there 'cause I'd say that those games have some of the best replay value of any games I've ever played.
I've played through Dark Souls 6 times, and I honestly don't think I'm entirely burned out yet, maybe I'm a masochist but I just never got tired of that game.
I've played through Dark Souls 6 times, and I honestly don't think I'm entirely burned out yet, maybe I'm a masochist but I just never got tired of that game.
Very... Divisive list.
Half of it is generic 'crap' IMO. Heavy Bethesda bias, I'm actually surprised we didn't see the token Bioware game.
Half of it is more stuff with personality and flavour, that I can actually respect as choices.
But its a near impossible thing to do. For me, I played Skyrim once. I then modded it for longer than I played it, and got bored because it was too broken to fix with the amount of effort I was willing to put in. On the flipside, I have put countless hours into games like Bioshock, even without the whole differing paths thing [I always play the same path]. For me its depth and atmosphere more than breadth, whilst for other people that's reversed.
Half of it is generic 'crap' IMO. Heavy Bethesda bias, I'm actually surprised we didn't see the token Bioware game.
Half of it is more stuff with personality and flavour, that I can actually respect as choices.
But its a near impossible thing to do. For me, I played Skyrim once. I then modded it for longer than I played it, and got bored because it was too broken to fix with the amount of effort I was willing to put in. On the flipside, I have put countless hours into games like Bioshock, even without the whole differing paths thing [I always play the same path]. For me its depth and atmosphere more than breadth, whilst for other people that's reversed.