Weekend Open Forum: What games have you replayed and why?

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104

Although Steam and its ilk coax me into buying new games regularly, it's uncommon for me to beat them and it's even rarer that I take them for a second spin -- especially once I've abandoned them. However, for whatever reason, a handful of games still manage to hold my interest after five or more playthroughs.

I fire up Splinter Cell and Hitman several times a year and I've played through Chaos Theory half a dozen times since 2006ish. Collectively, I've beaten titles in those franchises more than 20 times. Similarly, on the multiplayer side, I've repeatedly revisited StarCraft (and now StarCraft II) for a month or so every year since 2002.

It seems I'm not alone here. Most gamers I've spoken with replay certain titles or series semi-regularly, whether for nostalgia or simply because they can't have the same experience elsewhere -- I believe the latter applies to my fondness of Splinter Cell and Hitman. Have you revisited any games several times, and if so, why?

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I've played through a few games a second time (or more) if the subsequent run-throughs offer something different. Games like Dead Space 2, that pretty much requires a second playing to go for the hardcore difficulty ( only 3 save points allowed for the whole game)...and of course. a subsequent game after beating hardcore and unlocking the awesome hand cannon (and extra suits and weapons)...there's something vastly entertaining about blasting necromorphs with a giant foam hand glove with attendant "pew-pew"'s from Isaac.
The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games I've also played through multiple times, both to get the alternate endings, and to replay with mods for improved game image quality, and/or additional content. I think I may have played Shadow of Chernobyl well over twenty times including mods (L.U.R.K., Stalker Complete, Oblivion Lost, Narodnaya Solijanka, Secret Trails etc.)
 
Bioshock, Bioshock 2, Fallout 3, Skyrim, Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, etc. I love games that make you feel like you are part of the world where it takes place.
 
Far Cry 2, still massively underrated game that is way better in multiplayer than COD. Vast open world to explore.
 
It's not often that I go back to a game that I've finished, and to be honest, I rarely finish them in the first place. But one game that I played briefly at first and came back to play more heavily years later is World of Warcraft.

I haven't launched it again since like 2009 but man, those were months where I had a life and I had another one in the realm. I've promised myself not to get caught into the Blizzard web again, lol.
 
SO MUCH Halo (1, 2, 3, Reach, Wars, ODST), Super smash bros. melee, Zelda, Ratchet and Clank, Jak and Daxter, and Starwars battlefront 1 & 2. Any Final Fantasy (except MMO) hundreds of times. Sonic... Lots of Sonic. Soulcalibur II hundreds of times. Minecraft hundreds of times. Rayman, Centipede, Galaga, Starcraft II, H.A.W.X, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2010, Rainbow six vegas 2, Mirror's Edge, and UT 2004 a lot.
 
Sadly for most recent games I barely finish them, and can't remember going back and replaying a game start to finish. The only game I can think of is Gran Turismo 5, my 1st PS3 died so I bought a new one and that was the only game I actually started playing again, and more then before I lost my data. WoW was on and off for a while but gave up on it finally. Come to think of it, GTA4, bought it on PC and played almost all the way through it a 2nd time.
 
Mirror's Edge is the only game so far that I've finished twice. It's a good story, nice PhysX effects, and short enough to actually finish.

There's a whole lot of games that I have never finished, period. Just got done with Borderlands, in anticipation for the next release. I need to finish up Halo 3 too...
 
I always finish games and have replayed about half of the games I've finished (but, as a lot of other people, I have quite a few games I have never played yet).

For games that have sequels I usually replay the previous installments when I get the new one. For example if I buy the latest Splinter Cell game, I replay all the previous entries in the series. I've done the same with others like the Half Life, Hitman and F.E.A.R. series. So eventually I end up replaying the first game more than the others.

If a game is very good but a little short, like Dead Space, I even play through it two times back to back. Normally I play every game on medium difficulty and leave hard for the eventual replay.

Sometimes I just feel like revisiting a classic and replay it just for fun. I've been meaning to replay Doom 3 for quite some time, but now that they have announced the BFG edition I'll have to wait a little more ^^. Same goes for Bioshock 1 and 2, I'm waiting for the release of Infinite to replay those again.
 
I've played GTA IV like 30 times, and Mass Effect 2 around 20. The time was around 2008-2010. Right now, I do know plenty of games that has a high replayability like Max Payne 3. So these games have good single-player experience.
 
All of my Atari 2600 games. I still love to go back and set high scores. What can I say? I'm a child of the early '80s.
 
Skyrim! Played as a shield/sword warrior, then a mage, then a sneacky cat and now a dark paladin, the gameplay went crazy whit mods and those custom difficulty mods, half an hour in dragons whit adds go crazy.

Also Borderlands, halo, Half Life franchise and games like such.
 
[FONT=Trebuchet MS]Right now, it's Metro 2033 for me. It's an old game, of course. I got it a few months back, played it through once, liked it, but was unable to play it again because of a busy work schedule. I came back to it recently and started playing the game in earnest. [/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]I'm not particularly impressed by the English voice acting, but the graphics in this game are really some of the best I've seen yet. I just love the delicious detail -- man, even the walls look pretty. I love the smoke and the haze, the shadows and particle effects -- and for once, I actually enjoy playing with copious amounts of motion blur. [/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]I do get claustrophobic after a while so it's like having a gunfight inside a nightmare. I like to play this game in the dead of night to enhance the chilling creepiness. Fun stuff. [/FONT][FONT=Trebuchet MS]The storyline is relatively good, too -- as games today go.[/FONT]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]From the looks of it, I'll be playing and replaying this game for a while. I want to find out what this "Enlightened" ending is all about. :) [/FONT]
 
Heroes of Might and Magic III. I've been playing it since 2000, mostly while at work. I don't think its any stretch to say that I have ~3000 hours playing the game. I've played all types of games since then, but always keep coming back to it. Thank you GOG for porting it to Windows 7!!!
 
GBA:
fire emblem
harvest moon: friends of mineral town
pokemon firered
pokemon emerald
final fantasy tactics advanced

ps1:
nba live 98
boom bots
nba in the zone 2
final fantasy tactics

nds:
pokemon platinum
pokemon heartgold
naruto ninja destiny
jump ultimate stars
mario hoops 3 on 3

ps3:
pixeljunk sidescroller
split/second
assassin's creed
bomberman ultra
smackdown vs raw 2010

psp:
brave story
final fantasy tactics war of the lions

pc:
nba live 06
gta san andreas

gc:
super smash bros melee
soul calibur 2
kirby air ride
f-zero gx
sonic riders
battle stadium d.o.n.

ps2:
genji dawn of the samurai

neo geo pocket:
the king of fighters r-1
the king of fighters r-2
snk vs capcom match of the millineum

n64:
super smash bros 64
pokemon stadium 2

wii:
goldeneye reloaded

been playing handheld games more recently. feel kinda like I've missed out a little bit :(
 
I've replayed all of the games in the Metal Gear Solid series more times than I can remember, mostly just to mess around and have fun doing things that are against the sneaky nature of the game on a serious playthrough. That, and collectibles, using stealth, using new weapons.
 
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