What are your favorite video games?

[Alaric593]

Civilization series. I play a few turns a day usually. But Valheim is my huckleberry at this point. One of the best games ever created.

 

[Owliet]

Do you replay your favorite video games? I seem to do it often and make the same choices..=D

 

[Angular Chap]

Do you replay your favorite video games? I seem to do it often and make the same choices..=D

I find myself replaying old favorites all the time and I do the same thing, and always take the squeaky clean, good hero choices, light side, paragon, etc. I actually feel bad playing a bad character! And then there's mods, always fun to replay an old favorite to try out a new mod.

I see there has been a term in the games industry in recent years: "Replay value." Of course people want their moneys worth from a game. But for some reason, the term "value" seems to upset some game journalists, one of the reasons I stopped reading reviews and instead switched to watching YouTubers and streamers. It highlighted a divide between journalists and gamers. They called all the side quests, unlockables, collectables and easter eggs "pointless busywork" while the people who play the games really enjoyed all the extra content, plenty of value for money. Arrogantly forgetting that they get all their games for free to review, while the rest of us have to pay for them.

 

[Owliet]

I find myself replaying old favorites all the time and I do the same thing, and always take the squeaky clean, good hero choices, light side, paragon, etc. I actually feel bad playing a bad character! And then there's mods, always fun to replay an old favorite to try out a new mod.

I see there has been a term in the games industry in recent years: "Replay value." Of course people want their moneys worth from a game. But for some reason, the term "value" seems to upset some game journalists, one of the reasons I stopped reading reviews and instead switched to watching YouTubers and streamers. It highlighted a divide between journalists and gamers. They called all the side quests, unlockables, collectables and easter eggs "pointless busywork" while the people who play the games really enjoyed all the extra content, plenty of value for money. Arrogantly forgetting that they get all their games for free to review, while the rest of us have to pay for them.

Yes, I cannot play a truly evil character or make “bad choices”. In some games, it is so obviously the correct path because I’ve played it so many times that I will just do it automatically. I still get replay value out of it even if I repeat the same processes.

 

[Misery]

Do you replay your favorite video games? I seem to do it often and make the same choices..=D

I replay my favorites with extreme frequency. But then, most of them are roguelikes, shmups, or things like retro 2600 games and stuff like that. All are designed from the ground up (and actually have enough content) to be replayed numerous times in a single day (though, for many shmups and roguelikes, good luck getting an actual WIN during any of those playthroughs). Those tend to have the potential for hundreds or even thousands of hours of quality fun and challenge.

Other things that are more story based? Very rare. It depends on the nature of the game though. Like, what few JRPGs I've played, I'd never even think of going back to. They're far too easy to hold my attention and I've no bloody clue how I managed to snooze my way towards the ending of any of them to begin with. I have some vaguely fond memories of them... and by "them" I mean "Super Mario RPG" as I have mostly either "meh" or negative memories of any of the others (particularly Final Fantasy 4 and 6, bleh). But that's about it.

The sorts of smaller, concise story-focused games I might do these days? Those are a bit different. They usually arent very challenging... some having none whatsoever... but they're COMPACT and tell their stories in a very different way. Indies, as a rule (no AAA company would even consider making something like these). Two that I played over the last year were Lily's Well, and At Home Alone Final. Each took about 4-6 hours to complete (as in, do absolutely everything, including achievements). But both absolutely stuck with me. At Home Alone in particular, that one really got me, I cant stop thinking about it. What an experience that one was. I'll replay both sooner or later. There was also Angels of Death, come to think of it, that was also brilliant. That ending though, I hope someone got punched for that.

And then there's things like Factorio or Satisfactory. The factory must grow... that's all I even need to say about those. Anyone that's played either knows exactly what I mean, likely.

I see there has been a term in the games industry in recent years: "Replay value." Of course people want their moneys worth from a game. But for some reason, the term "value" seems to upset some game journalists, one of the reasons I stopped reading reviews and instead switched to watching YouTubers and streamers. It highlighted a divide between journalists and gamers. They called all the side quests, unlockables, collectables and easter eggs "pointless busywork" while the people who play the games really enjoyed all the extra content, plenty of value for money. Arrogantly forgetting that they get all their games for free to review, while the rest of us have to pay for them.

To be fair though, game journalists are usually sorta forced to do their reviews in bulk... quantity over quality regardless of what the reviewer wants. That's the bit that most people dont think about whenever they're berating said journalists.

Heck, I've experienced it. I typically write reviews on Steam, because I feel like it, and my reviews usually get a good amount of attention. Particularly that Isaac one (for the big Repentance expansion), what a tornado of ridiculousness THAT caused. Mine was the #1 review on that game's store page for a full month (I still cant believe that) so... it did well, and that's putting it very mildly. That's definitely not the only time that happened, either.

But, I also was able to approach it my way, and write the final result my way. I didnt have to format things to someone else's standards... indeed, when I review something, I talk just as I do here. And I review only when I bloody well feel like it. So that's why it, and my others, do well.

Awhile ago though, I was approached by a group that does more "professional" reviews on a site that is, well, all about reviews and such. These were more traditional reviews, like you see on any typical gaming site. They needed to be written much faster, because there was always new stuff, always a backlog, AND they required WAY more formatting, which drove me up the bloody wall. It was very irritating and the quality of what I was putting out dropped heavily because of it. I didnt stay all that long before leaving.

And that bit there is what full-on gaming journalists go through, BUT, they usually go through worse, as typically there's some big company behind them (whereas the one I was dealing with was a smaller group) and of course, Corporate always knows best... says Corporate. When you've got abusive, uncaring execs breathing down your neck, well... good luck putting out ANYTHING of real quality. But also, it's MUCH harder to actually enjoy any of it.

Not that there arent some genuine duds out there, of course, like the Cuphead guy... but still.

 

[Angular Chap]

To be fair though, game journalists are usually sorta forced to do their reviews in bulk... quantity over quality regardless of what the reviewer wants. That's the bit that most people dont think about whenever they're berating said journalists.

Heck, I've experienced it. I typically write reviews on Steam, because I feel like it, and my reviews usually get a good amount of attention. Particularly that Isaac one (for the big Repentance expansion), what a tornado of ridiculousness THAT caused. Mine was the #1 review on that game's store page for a full month (I still cant believe that) so... it did well, and that's putting it very mildly. That's definitely not the only time that happened, either.

But, I also was able to approach it my way, and write the final result my way. I didnt have to format things to someone else's standards... indeed, when I review something, I talk just as I do here. And I review only when I bloody well feel like it. So that's why it, and my others, do well.

Awhile ago though, I was approached by a group that does more "professional" reviews on a site that is, well, all about reviews and such. These were more traditional reviews, like you see on any typical gaming site. They needed to be written much faster, because there was always new stuff, always a backlog, AND they required WAY more formatting, which drove me up the bloody wall. It was very irritating and the quality of what I was putting out dropped heavily because of it. I didnt stay all that long before leaving.

And that bit there is what full-on gaming journalists go through, BUT, they usually go through worse, as typically there's some big company behind them (whereas the one I was dealing with was a smaller group) and of course, Corporate always knows best... says Corporate. When you've got abusive, uncaring execs breathing down your neck, well... good luck putting out ANYTHING of real quality.

Not that there arent some genuine duds out there, of course, like the Cuphead guy... but still.

Nice, thanks for the insight. And I remember the Cuphead guy, not even funny bad. Although I did kind of agree with what he said about gamers being toxic. Weeeellll...not all of course, and he did use it as an excuse to defect his incompetence, but yes, he's half right. I kind of did feel sorry for that amount of hate. Ridiculed for utter incompetence, sure. Not mentally destroyed by absolute hate-mongers until the next target comes along.

 

[blue_bird]

My favorites were:

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven
Pro Evolution Soccer

 

[Princess Viola]

I've been playing RuneScape since I was 10 years old in 2006. I've taken breaks from the game, certainly, but I always end up coming back to it. Of course, nowadays I nearly exclusively play Old School RuneScape over RuneScape 3. But I think the fact that I've basically played this game for 16 years now definitely says something and I do consider it one of my favorites (now if only that 16 years had led to me actually being good at the game).

Also big fan of the Civilization series (I mostly stick with Civilization IV but I've played Civ III, Civ V, and Civ VI too + the SNES port of the original game, which is how I first played Civ), The Sims, and SimCity (except for the most recent SimCity game, never played and never will. I'll stick to SimCity 4 [and Cities Skylines for a modern version of the city building genre that doesn't suck]. Also, considering I just said I'm a big fan of The Sims, an extra middle finger for what the failure of SimCity 2013 did to The Sims (and I'm saying this as someone who loves The Sims 4 but if you know the development history of the game, you'd agree with me)

Can't forget the Trainz series (even though the only one I've put serious time into is Trainz: A New Era - I use that game for all the Thomas & Friends custom content) and Grand Theft Auto, my fave GTA games are Vice City, San Andreas, and V. (I'd say 'And those are the only ones I've played!' but no, I've played the first two, GTA: Advance on Game Boy Advance, and Chinatown Wars on DS - and Chinatown Wars is great too. Also played a little of the two PSP ones, but not too much.)

Plenty of other games I'm a big fan of too, like the Darkstalkers series, the Tony Hawk series, the Kirby franchise. But RuneScape, Civilization, The Sims, SimCity, Trainz, and GTA would probably be the games/franchises I'd definitely say are my faves. They're basically the ones where I'll always end up playing if I just want to play something.

 

[Slime_Punk]

Somehow the entire THPS franchise never gets old

 

[Princess Viola]

Definitely one of those franchises where I was able to pick it back up after not having played any of them in years and almost immediately get back into the groove of things. They just nailed the controls in them.

 

[Slime_Punk]

Anyone playing any Zachlikes? I've got so many and I'm thinking about lining them up and knocking them down to help with my IRL problem-solving skills. Normally I give up in games when they get to that mind-bending level but I really want to try to push through that and see what comes out the other side (hopefully not my brain itself)

 

[autism-and-autotune]

I prefer games which have a good story and are...not necessarily easy or simple, but not hard.

I like Red Dead Redemption II, GTA IV, Plague Tale, It takes Two, Lego Star Wars, and Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.

 

[Lemon Zing]

Balloon Fight on the NES is my favourite retro oldie. Resident Evil 2 is my favourite horror game overall, of course. Then it's probably The Last of Us.

 

[tkcartoonist]

My favorite game is scrabble. I love to play scrabble with my friend. It is a mind game helpful in improving vocabulary. The score of this board game is to come up with a word or words by placing letter tiles on the scrabble board. Scrabble is based on two things: the value of the tiles used in the word and the placement of the tiles on the board by the player.

That's great, but this thread is specifically about video games.

 

[Kisa the tea]

Far far too many to list. I'm not good at picking favorites.