Videogames that steal your time and soul

[JonathonWally]

I'm very happy to say I'm 7 months WoW free. It's a constant battle everyday too.

Let's see, the biggest games that sucked me in the past would have to be FF7, FF10, FF12, KoToR,

Recently, Fable 2, and then of course, the newest Prince of Persia. Once I started, I couldn't put it down. I didn't sleep that weekend.

 

[gh4chiefs]

Don't get me wrong the New Call of duty is great. But it just hasn't sucked me in for some reason.

I'm afraid I was enjoying using the flame thrower just a little too much last night. The Japanese soliders would charge me yelling "Banzai!" (sp?) and I was like "Banzai this motherfucker!" and whoosh, instant BBQ'd soldier.

I worry about myself sometimes.

Its even more fun in multiplayer-then you know some poor sap's screen was covered in flame! We are sick, sick, sick....

Yeah I was on the receiving end of that one time in multiplayer. In fact it was the first time I was playing online. My screen got this weird shimmering effect and poof, I was dead. The first time it happened I was like WTF until I saw the killcam.

 

[God Magnus]

I haven't played many games recently, but ones that absolutely consumed many many hours of my time were:

Alone in the Dark (1-3)
Justice League (GBA)
Pac-Man
Silent Hill 2
Star Wars (the sit down one where you can play all 3 movies)
Street Fighter II Turbo
Super Mario Bros. 3
Tetris
Tron 2.0

I really wish I had more time for games. The graphics and such are stunning nowadays, but I simply don't have the hours to commit to it.

 

[Canadave]

These are the "worst" ones for me:

SimCity 4
Europa Universalis (II and III)
Silent Hunter 4

 

[kitkat]

What server are you on, kitkat?

My main's armory page.

I'm on Draenor but I'm able to have Death Knights so I can start one of those on any realm.

 

[Rowan Sjet]

Eve Online is currently stealing most of my gaming time, with Left 4 Dead a close second.

 

[Dude]

Everquest
Birth of the Federation

 

[Rii]

By raw hours invested it'd be between Counter-Strike (2000-2004) and World of Warcraft (2005-). It's interesting to note that both of these games evolved significantly from their initial release, that evolving nature is likely why they've held my attention for so long. Other games that I played for years on a regular basis include Age of Empires, Goldeneye 007, Mario Kart 64, Starcraft, Unreal Tournament, and Warcraft III.

 

[Mick of Time]

Who mentioned Fantasy General? My God, that was a fantastic game, and a horrific timesuck. It and its sister game Panzer General consumed more hours of my life than I care to admit.

 

[BigFoot]

Most of the Final Fantasy games (especially VII and X).
Rogue Galaxy
Oblivion

 

[Gatekeeper]

Hmm. Over the years, I've sunk quite a bit of time into Sid Meier's Civilization II, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross and, more recently, the MotorStorm and Resistance games for the PS3.

Gatekeeper

 

[Jim Steele]

OBvious ones for me. Morrowind, Oblivion, GTA4, and recently Fable 2/Fallout 3.

Left4Dead has been sucking a lot of my time too.

Not that I'm complaining, these games are full of win. Except maybe Oblivion. My wife got me Star Ocean: First Departure on PSP, so I can't wait to get right into that. Bedtime gaming GO!

 

[Bishbot]

The one I'm currently on is Sins of a Solar Empire. What I enjoy doing is putting only a couple factions on grossly oversizes maps and then trying to take over the universe. Right now, I'm on hour six of a map, and I'm sure that I have many more hours to go.

I'm playing that too. Its a game that should have a lot of love on this board. A wonderful space-opera strategy. I find I can't play for long sessions though, because its quite an intense game when it gets going. A bit slower than a normal RTS, but it goes on for SO much longer. Then again, I tend to play medium to small sized maps with four or more factions so there are always a lot of fronts to worry about.

I don't have any of the patches though, which I'm told change the game quite a lot. Do you know anything about that?

 

[IDIC]

Most MMOGs have stolen large chunks of my time including but not solely limited to Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Everquest 2.

Other games:
Knights of the Old Republic
Star Wars Empire at War
Oblivion
and too many others

Usually, if it is a roleplaying game or has any sort of large scale strategy to it there is a high chance that I can get lost in it.

 

[Othello]

Civilization III and Civilization IV computer
Everquest and Everquest 2 computer
Descent PS1
Resident Evil 4 Gamecube

 

[archeryguy1701]

The one I'm currently on is Sins of a Solar Empire. What I enjoy doing is putting only a couple factions on grossly oversizes maps and then trying to take over the universe. Right now, I'm on hour six of a map, and I'm sure that I have many more hours to go.

I'm playing that too. Its a game that should have a lot of love on this board. A wonderful space-opera strategy. I find I can't play for long sessions though, because its quite an intense game when it gets going. A bit slower than a normal RTS, but it goes on for SO much longer. Then again, I tend to play medium to small sized maps with four or more factions so there are always a lot of fronts to worry about.

I don't have any of the patches though, which I'm told change the game quite a lot. Do you know anything about that?

That's what I love about it. I enjoy RTS's, but I get tired of getting wiped out in less than 30 minutes every time. I'm a very slow player, and so resources, expansion, and military might all develop very slowly for me, and that's simply because I have never been able to develop a strategy that helps me get fast. But Sins allows me to take the time I need while still staying i the game.

For the patches, I have very little experience with them. I installed the patch on my previous computer, but i didn't have it on for very long before switching machines, and I am currently patch free. Looking at thelist of changes, it looks like they did a ton of pretty substantial balancing changes. Lots of pretty sizable changes (both increase and decrease) for effect times, cooldown times, weapon strengths, weapon ranges, armor, etc. Once I finish the game I'm on, I plan on patching up so I can check out the new expansion pack that's coming out soon.

 

[FPAlpha]

Currently it's Fallout 3..

That fucker has cost me many weekends now and some evenings after work too!

It's always "Oooh.. let me just do this little sidequest to get XP/this nice gizmo/more weapons" and this eats into my personal free time.
I don't think i have bothered with the main quest for days now.. this game is huge and i gave barely explored half of the world.

Other than that it's good strategy games though i usually breeze through them in a couple of days (it helps that most games can still be beaten by the usual "defend at first and then rush 'em" tactics ).

 

[Astraea]

Currently, the Sims 2. In the past, Civilization II, Alpha Centauri, Master of Orion II, SimCity 2000, SimCity 3000, and the original Sims.

 

[Arthur Frelling Dent]

Currently it's Fallout 3..

That fucker has cost me many weekends now and some evenings after work too!

It's always "Oooh.. let me just do this little sidequest to get XP/this nice gizmo/more weapons" and this eats into my personal free time.
I don't think i have bothered with the main quest for days now.. this game is huge and i gave barely explored half of the world.

That's the way I played Oblivion and am currently playing Fallout 3. Just explore and do side quests until there's nothing left to do. I put over 100 hours into Oblivion before tackling the main quest.

 

[The Great Meech]

Kingdom of Loathing has come close to killing me on several occasions, and my luck at/compulisve addiction to gambling in the game has convinced me to never set foot inside a casino.

SimCity Creator for the DS has become a weird obsession to me. I can't explain why I find it captivating. I've had it for a month and a half, and I've spent around 70 hours on it. Not good.