Games you keep coming back to

bluefugue · Post by **bluefugue** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 4:29 pm

Not necessarily the best games, but the ones that stick in your brain and on your hard drive for years.

For me one would be Unreal. It has its flaws as a shooter and I wouldn't put it up with Half Life, Jedi Knight, etc. Still, I keep playing it. The funny thing is I have never actually won it -- got pretty close to the end -- but I've dumped hundreds of hours playing through its levels. It just has an atmosphere like no other game. Even with the now-dated graphics. "Nyleve's Falls" has to be one of my favorite levels in any game -- the music, the setting, the moons in the sky. Perfectly captures that sense of being lost on an alien world. It reminds me of old matte paintings in Star Trek episodes with massive moons in the background, stuff I loved when I was a kid.

Veloxi · Post by **Veloxi** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 4:42 pm

There are quite a few games I always return to. Jumpgate, Jedi Knight, Master of Magic, Darklands, Total Annihilation, Emperor of the Fading Suns, Falcon 4.0, Red Baron 3D, Freespace 2, Tie Fighter, Morrowind, etc etc. Some games you just can't get rid of.

Kelric · Post by **Kelric** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 4:46 pm

I've always gone back and played Caesar 3 for my Rome-fix but with Rome: Total War out, I don't think that will be the case any longer.
Civilization 2 is an all-time classic that I go back and play once or twice a year it seems.
Dungeon Keeper 2 still holds up for me, especially since I still haven't beat it. I always lose focus around the same one level.
Medieval: Total War was also on this list until Rome came out.

(Ya know, I bet Rome gets it's way onto this list.)

Settlers 3. I enjoy building stuff from scratch like you do in that game, which is probably why my OOTP teams always get torn down and built again.

Out of the Park Baseball may not count since I've bought versions 4, 5 and 6 over the last three years but it keeps getting better and gives me my baseball fix with a ton of stats - which I love.

SuperHiro · Post by **SuperHiro** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 4:58 pm

It looks like Neverwinter Nights for me. I'm atrociously fickle when it comes to characters. It was only by some miracle that I managed to get though the OC and SoU campaigns without hemming and hawing about what character to use. Right now I'm doing HotU with an Elf Paladin/Champion of Torm and I'm already getting some pangs of regret. But I'm sticking with this.

My biggest beef with NWN is that I absolutely loathe how they treated half-elves. They just gave them the human bodies/heads. Lame ass. With BG they had the elf bodies. I want elf bodies damn it. And I would rather not use dm_commands to do it.

IceBear · Post by **IceBear** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 5:10 pm

SuperHiro wrote:It looks like Neverwinter Nights for me. I'm atrociously fickle when it comes to characters. It was only by some miracle that I managed to get though the OC and SoU campaigns without hemming and hawing about what character to use. Right now I'm doing HotU with an Elf Paladin/Champion of Torm and I'm already getting some pangs of regret. But I'm sticking with this.

My biggest beef with NWN is that I absolutely loathe how they treated half-elves. They just gave them the human bodies/heads. Lame ass. With BG they had the elf bodies. I want elf bodies damn it. And I would rather not use dm_commands to do it.

There are a lot of head models on Neverwinter Vault. A LOT. Some of them you just copy into your override directory and you can use them in any mod regardless of hakpack.

It's NWN for me too. It's the only game that has stayed on my hard drive more than a month or two (it's been there since the day it was released)

Biyobi · Post by **Biyobi** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 5:13 pm

For me it's Master of Orion 2. I just keep going back to this game every other month or so.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 5:16 pm

Crush Deluxe is the only game I go back to every now and then. I would LOVE a new version of it.

Huw the Poo · Post by **Huw the Poo** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 5:18 pm

I will always keep hold of a lot of my games, but one far outshines the others and it's Edge of Chaos. I'm gonna love it forever.

Eel Snave · Post by **Eel Snave** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 5:20 pm

Hmm...

I would have to say No One Lives Forever 1 & 2. After playing gritty, angry shooters, it's nice to come back to a game that doesn't take itself so seriously.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 5:21 pm

Huw the Poo wrote:I will always keep hold of a lot of my games, but one far outshines the others and it's Edge of Chaos. I'm gonna love it forever.

As in Independence War 2?

godhugh · Post by **godhugh** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 5:51 pm

Out of the Park Baseball, Baldurs Gate 2, Morrowind, and Freespace 2 are the games that will remain on my HD forever.

Archangel · Post by **Archangel** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 6:37 pm

For me it would be:

Rouge Spear + addons
Age of the empires II
Raven Shield
Operation Flashpoint
Need for speed: Porsche Challenge

Hidden and dangerous was there as well, but have done it`s duty for me now after the 2nd came out....though I will probably not replay it after I have beaten it on the hardest difficulty level.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 9:43 pm

The Operational Art of War still sees almost daily use. Probably the only other game that I reached back into the past for this year was Panzer Campaigns - Smolensk.

As long as I still have a huge "to be played" pile, retro-gaming isn't ever an issue.

mdsmith · Post by **mdsmith** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:18 pm

My heart belongs to Civ 3 with the DYP and R&R mods. I always come back to Civ sooner or later. In fact I can feel it pulling at me now.

Veloxi · Post by **Veloxi** » Mon Nov 29, 2004 10:45 pm

mdsmith wrote:My heart belongs to Civ 3 with the DYP and R&R mods. I always come back to Civ sooner or later. In fact I can feel it pulling at me now.

Which mods are these? I've been interesting in trying Civ III again.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:23 am

Civ 3

Caesar III (surprised to see someone else mention this one!! you freak!

)
Heroes of Might and Magic IV

Every once in a while I will try to finish Xwing Alliance, only to get distracted...one day I will finish this one.

Same goes for European Air War...those two have been on my drives for a long long time.

And SOME version of Civ has been on my hard drive since they came out with the first one...I don't see that changing anytime soon.

Best game ever in my humble. Also has most replayability. Long live Sid. Yay.

Draco · Post by **Draco** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:38 am

Lords of the Realm 2

Baldur's Gate 2 (the mod community is incredible!) There are always new quests and NPCs being put out by the mod community.

Huw the Poo · Post by **Huw the Poo** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 3:31 am

Lee wrote:
Huw the Poo wrote:I will always keep hold of a lot of my games, but one far outshines the others and it's Edge of Chaos. I'm gonna love it forever.
As in Independence War 2?

Yeah. Probably in my all-time top 3 games.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 10:13 am

Veloxi wrote:
mdsmith wrote:My heart belongs to Civ 3 with the DYP and R&R mods. I always come back to Civ sooner or later. In fact I can feel it pulling at me now.
Which mods are these? I've been interesting in trying Civ III again.

Ditto. X-com also holds up very well. You need the Conquests expansion to play Rise & Rule, but can add Double Your Pleasure to plain-vanilla Civ3. Both are excellent. DYP had some pacing problems, IMO, that made it very hard to reach the modern era in smaller games; R&R seems to have solved that. http://civ3.bernskov.com/RaR/about.asp

freelunch · Post by **freelunch** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 11:34 am

Astral Tournament

probably my favourite shareware game ever, I've been playing it on and off for a couple of years.

Ax · Post by Ax » Tue Nov 30, 2004 11:50 am

Call me old school but everytime I see Ms. Pac Man I have to play it.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:02 pm

Counter-strike. I've been playing it on and off since beta 1. It's the faithful, comfortable old reclining chair of games for me.

bluefugue · Post by **bluefugue** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:58 pm

Ax wrote:Call me old school but everytime I see Ms. Pac Man I have to play it.

Awesome awesome game. One of those sequels that does everything better than the original.

Dirt · Post by **Dirt** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:05 pm

Starcraft. One of these days, I'm going to finish the game.

Zekester · Post by **Zekester** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:41 pm

I have to have an Unreal Tournament game installed at all times.

Just doesn't seem right to not have it around

Raug · Post by **Raug** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 1:55 pm

I have a few that I'll come back to every few months and have them suck away a week or more of my time.

Heroes of Might and Magic III tops the list. It's been on my hdd for years and has never left it. The Wog mod gave it even more legs. If I were to ever count up the amount of hours I've spent playing this game I'd probably melt the disc in a microwave...not that I could actually count that high.

Might and Magic VI and VII - I always end up playing through both of these at least twice every single year without fail.

Sid Meir's Alpha Centauri
Civilization III w/ DYP
Starcraft

Diablo II (cursed be thy name!) I'll start a new character ocassionally when I'm bored with other games and dump many, many hours into it. I'll get bored and/or fed up with it when the character hits 80 something and give up. I always feel oddly unfulfilled and guilty after playing. Like I totally wasted my time. No other game makes me feel that way.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:17 pm

I have 100 games on backlog but I still play the same ones all the time;Civ3+exp,Call to Power2,Fallout Tactics,Fallout 2,UFO Aftermath,SE4,+ various HPS wargame titles.

KiloOhm · Post by **KiloOhm** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:32 pm

Veloxi wrote:
mdsmith wrote:My heart belongs to Civ 3 with the DYP and R&R mods. I always come back to Civ sooner or later. In fact I can feel it pulling at me now.
Which mods are these? I've been interesting in trying Civ III again.

I don't have links, but he's refering to:

Double Your Pleasure (I've tried this one it's very well done)
Rise and Rule (never tried it but it's very popular)

I'm sure a search on www.apolyton.com will turn them up.

Rich in KCK · Post by **Rich in KCK** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:45 pm

I guess the only one that I that I always have installed and play is Nascar Racing 2003. There are several mods out for it now to race other series and types of cars and the physics model hasn't been beat yet by anything similar that I've tried. Rally Racers not included.

Other than that the only two games I kept going back to but finally moved away from were Darkstone and Medal of Honor.

Darkstone your character aged and you could play through the game again at a different difficulty and your player wouldn't reset. It also had a small pool of missions to pull from and sometimes you would get one you hadn't done yet.

Medal of Honor you had to beat the game at all the difficulty levels to collect all of the medals. I played through about 2 1/2 times but I started with medium then hard. I just couldn't go through again on easy it was too much and by then the expansion was out.

jcompton · Post by **jcompton** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 6:29 pm

Baldur's Gate 2, Wasteland... I used to try to give A Mind Forever Voyaging a play-through once a year or so although I've slacked lately. I did play the Zork trilogy over last Christmas and would like to do something similar this year.

yossar · Post by **yossar** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 7:21 pm

Freecell
Spider Solitaire
Dungeoncrawl

That's about it. I'll install old games on a whim every once in a while (A month or two ago, after installing Icewind Dale and both expansions, I created a party and got in a good 5 minutes of play before quitting and never playing it again) but I generally don't play many games I've already played or watch movies I've already seen.

I would like to replay Planescape: Torment but I think one of my friends (can't remember who...) has been "borrowing" the CDs for a few years. Either that or I lost them myself.

disarm · Post by **disarm** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 8:03 pm

with so many great new games out this year, i haven't been going back to replay many of the older ones in my collection. here's a few that have made it back on my HD though...

Unreal Tournament - still can't get enough of 2k4 after almost 8 months
Planescape: Torment - playing my 2nd time now
NFS: Porsche Unleashed - my favorite PC racing game of all time
Morrowind - with both expansions, there's always something more to do

one of these days, i'd like to load up Baldur's Gate 2 again and run through with a different party...that takes a huge time commitment though...

Kyosho · Post by **Kyosho** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 2:22 am

Morrowind: I've never finished the main quest. I've never even seen the entire island of Vvardenfell, let alone Tribunal or Bloodmoon. And yet I've invested a lot of time into it. Hrmm.

Half-Life mods: Up until they closed WON, I played CS, Natural Selection, Firearms and a couple others all the time. Then they closed WON and became Steam-only, which refuses to work on dial-up. How stupid is that? They design a game with such awesome netcode, and then a couple years later they force you onto a network which has crappy netcode.

Metal Gear Solid: Okay, I don't have the PC version, but at least there IS a PC version so it counts, right? I've played through that game at least 10 times. Probably more.

Road Rash: The old PC one. It never gets old. Sure there's better racing games out there, but I still play this one (or rather, used to until I formatted my harddrive, only to realize I'd lost the cd).

Brad: The Game: Okay, maybe this isn't quite a game, but more of a choose your own adventure book in website form. But I've got the whole thing downloaded. It's just simply amusing, and the shear amount of different things to try is cool. Though it can be pretty perverted at times. And I've yet to see every ending (though I have unlocked Hard Mode, finally).

I know there's others I can't remember at the moment...

Edit: Can't believe I forgot the Gabriel Knight games. I go back and play those at least once a year.

sgoldj · Post by **sgoldj** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 11:27 am

I'm a finisher and get 'em of the drive type of guy.

Exception : I Was An Atomic Mutant. I don't try to beat my scores, just kill things when I want to think about something else. Beats snack food.

jonsauce · Post by **jonsauce** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 12:16 pm

For me it's Dark Age of Camelot...but thats because I am addicted. I can't seem to quit for more than a month. In fact I am going through withdrawal right now. MUST NOT GO BACK!

JayG · Post by **JayG** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 11:52 am

Fallout 1 and 2. SO many ways to play, so many different things to do.

BG2. I love all the party interactions, and there is so many quests I still haven't completed.

GTA 3 and Vice City.

Age of Wonders 2.

Max Payne 2. Totally underappreciated and the best action game released in years. I love the sense of humour.

RunningMn9 · Post by **RunningMn9** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 2:20 pm

So many old games, so many new games, what's a boy to do?

These are some games that I positively cannot get away from:

Lords of the Realm II
I'm sure that the appeal of this game is that it isn't much more than "Defender of the Crown" on steroids. But I love it. I love it alot. I haven't played it in a while because it got a bit wonky on my under XP, but I routinely contemplate playing it. A great game.

Soldier of Fortune
One of my favorite shooters of all-time. Any time I get enraged, all I have to do is slap in SoF and play the subway level. I love it.

Civ 3 and/or Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
I don't know which one I like more - but I can't ever seem to get away from them. They play great on my laptop, and so make for great travel games as well.

Homeworld
I always get my ass kicked by the computer when I play it, and I don't think I've ever made it past the 5th board - but there is just something about this game that keeps me coming back.

Every once in a while I go back to advance myself through Baldur's Gate with the hopes of one day finishing it so I can play BG2. Some day.

setaside · Post by **setaside** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 2:29 pm

Games that are constantly and consistently installed/uninstalled from my machine include ...

Total Annihilation
Starcraft
X-Com
Alpha Centauri
Master of Orion 2
Galactic Civilizations
Fallout
Arcanum

I've never beat Fallout or Arcanum and probably have no intentions of beating either, but I love the gameplay of both and just can't let go. All of the others should be more than self-explainatory.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 2:46 pm

It's always HoMMIII. As crappy as the AI is, I still love the game. It has so many good sensibilities of a good board strategy game built into all of the strengths thas a computer could give a board game.

As much as I have dogged on Diablo II, it somehow found it's way back into being played recently. We go straight to HardCore characters and are trying to finish Hell mode and failing and losing many hours of effort.

I had a MoM thing going, but it got too easy too quickly again.

bluefugue · Post by **bluefugue** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 2:55 pm

As crappy as the AI is, I still love the game.

That's how I feel about Rome Total War... It's not all bad, but I've noticed some egregious weaknesses in the AI, pretty laughable stuff. Still, it doesn't change the fact that it's one of the best games I've ever played.