# Games that kept you busy the longest



## Tycho (Apr 16, 2012)

And I mean months.  Months of playing and replaying, not because you had nothing else, but because YOU COULDN'T STOP.  Anyone care to submit a candidate or two?  I'll start with... NetHack (I LIKE THE ABUSE).  Don't think any other game before it truly kept me enthralled like it did.


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## Irreverent (Apr 16, 2012)

Castle Wolfentein.


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## Sarcastic Coffeecup (Apr 16, 2012)

If I was to believe Steam it'd be team fortress 2, but there are games that have had me hooked for longer.
On ps1 there was this game called Star Wars Demolition. It was my entire childhood with countless hours


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## Xenke (Apr 16, 2012)

I think the record so far is Bayonetta, keeping me entertained for many a month, but most games don't come close to that for me, at least not in one bout.


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## Onnes (Apr 16, 2012)

Everquest


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## Teal (Apr 16, 2012)

Pokemon Emerald, before I restarted I had played over 300 hours.


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## Mxpklx (Apr 16, 2012)

Garry's Mod. 800 hours and counting.


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## kyle19 (Apr 16, 2012)

Fallout 3, I spent a good year playing that.


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## Imperial Impact (Apr 16, 2012)

Myself. :V


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## Dragonfurry (Apr 16, 2012)

Minecraft or TF2


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## Flippy (Apr 16, 2012)

FFXI


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## Kaamos (Apr 16, 2012)

Diablo II


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## BRN (Apr 16, 2012)

I've also got 500 hours on Pokemon Pearl, 800 hours on Metal Gear Solid 3... 

:|


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## LizardKing (Apr 16, 2012)

Probably Quake, though admittedly it was 75% coding mods for it, 25% actually playing the mods. Playing things in slow motion was pretty fun as well, especially when recorded and played back at full speed.


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## NerdyMunk (Apr 16, 2012)

I haven't gone too long on games.
I'm playing AC: Revelations Multi till I get to lvl 50 or higher, but I know I won't be a good level 50. I'm level 43 now.
I have only gone a little over in Minecraft.
In recent years I played 5 hours or LittleBigPlanet once.


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## RedFoxTwo (Apr 16, 2012)

Operation Flashpoint (the original, not this modern trash)

4 years and counting since I bought it and I've barely played anything else. It's because the dev tools are so good and it's got its own scripting language.


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## Sly-Wolf (Apr 16, 2012)

Adventure
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventure_(Atari_2600)
Zork
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zork


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## Sar (Apr 16, 2012)

I would say either FF7 or Grand theft auto 4 (inlcuding all the DLCs).
FF7 had a lot in it.
GTA4 was just fun to screw around in.


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## Metalmeerkat (Apr 16, 2012)

I don't log much on nethack because I usually rage quit because of the many, many, many, many stupid ways the game will kill you (oh noes, a yellow light exploder is coming to me! better equip my blindfold so I don't die. oh no, the blindfold is cursed, blargh I am dead). Permadeath isn't kind.

Besides that, I have logged insane hours on minecraft. Let's put it this way, I almost got to the end game with Equivalent Exchange _legitimately_. Not once, but twice (the first with the dm locus as the endgame, the second with those klien stars). I've been playing since Alpha, so that is about a year and a half.

There's also I Want To Be the Guy. Downed some time in that too, though not any more really. Nothing really I have besides that, these three games are all I have.


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## RedFoxTwo (Apr 16, 2012)

Metalmeerkat said:


> I don't log much on nethack because I usually rage quit because of the many, many, many, many stupid ways the game will kill you (oh noes, a yellow light exploder is coming to me! better equip my blindfold so I don't die. oh no, the blindfold is cursed, blargh I am dead). Permadeath isn't kind.



The game is designed to be outwitted, not outgunned. Don't take enemies head on as it's sure to kill you. 
I for instance just mindraped everything in my way so it became friends with me ('Charm Monster' spell). Then I just let my wall of mindraped flesh take the hits for me. Works a charm.


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## Tycho (Apr 16, 2012)

never ever ever don a blindfold or towel without B/U/C testing it first.  Charm a pet asap for this purpose, as they are phobic of cursed items, giving you a way to test without an altar handy.


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## RedFoxTwo (Apr 16, 2012)

Tycho said:


> Charm a pet asap for this purpose, *as they are phobic of cursed items*


Wow, why did I never know this. Cheers, Tycho.

Now I can dress up kittens in a desperate bid for my own survival.


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## Kahoku (Apr 16, 2012)

I used to play Warcraft online for years.

I switched to Guild wars, and now coming out guild wars2.

Currently Skyrim.


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## Tycho (Apr 16, 2012)

RedFoxTwo said:


> Wow, why did I never know this. Cheers, Tycho.
> 
> Now I can dress up kittens in a desperate bid for my own survival.



They will generally be reluctant to step on the same square as a cursed item. Sometimes if you displace them onto a cursed item's square or manage to coax them over one you'll see them move "reluctantly".  That's the sign you're looking for.


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## lupinealchemist (Apr 16, 2012)

Diablo II could, if I have the attention span for it. Started playing again yesterday.


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## veeno (Apr 16, 2012)

Diablo 2.

Greatest game ever.


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## RedFoxTwo (Apr 16, 2012)

Tycho said:


> They will generally be reluctant to step on the same square as a cursed item. Sometimes if you displace them onto a cursed item's square or manage to coax them over one you'll see them move "reluctantly".  That's the sign you're looking for.


Since I wrote my own Identify spellbook in frustration, I can now identify everything with merry abandon. 

On another note, I'm still mystified by how B/U/C affects scrolls. I know if it's cursed the scroll misfires and corrupts the original intent, eg. Teleport twelve levels up. I've no idea how a blessed scroll differs from an uncursed one though.


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## Tycho (Apr 16, 2012)

RedFoxTwo said:


> Since I wrote my own Identify spellbook in frustration, I can now identify everything with merry abandon.
> 
> On another note, I'm still mystified by how B/U/C affects scrolls. I know if it's cursed the scroll misfires and corrupts the original intent, eg. Teleport twelve levels up. I've no idea how a blessed scroll differs from an uncursed one though.



Varies from scroll to scroll, but blessed identify scrolls have a chance to identify multiple items or ALL of your items, depending on your luck.  Cursed scrolls with ostensibly negative effects like SoPunishment, SoFire and SoAmnesia have their negative effects amplified.  Cursed genocide scrolls spawn half a dozen monsters of the type you specify all around you.  (Can be very useful in certain situations).  Generally, cursed beneficial scrolls do the opposite of what the scroll would normally do, while blessed scrolls do it BETTER.  There is a massive spoiler wiki for NetHack at WikiHack that breaks this stuff down in detail.


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## Ibuuyk (Apr 16, 2012)

MMO: Seven years of Runescape.
Console game: About 30 games of Tales of Symphonia over the decade.
Steam: Around 340 hours of Dragon Age Origins - Ultimate Edition.
Handheld game: About 450 hours of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance.
Arcade: About ten minutes of Ms. Pacman


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## Conker (Apr 16, 2012)

World of Warcraft and Super Smash Bros Melee.


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## shteev (Apr 16, 2012)

Back when I first bought it, Minecraft ate up my life.


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## Don (Apr 16, 2012)

Any strategy game developed by Paradox Interactive. My e-megalomania knows no bounds.


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## Littlerock (Apr 16, 2012)

There's a 200+hour save for LoZ:TP on one of my cube's memory card, but a great deal of that is from exploring and general glitching. Out-of-bounds exploring is the best. 

Also, fishing. OOT and MQ probably have similar save times, but how to tell? My Pokemon crystal had 150 hours on it before it got wiped, but the new file has a good 200 on it now.


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## Ikrit (Apr 16, 2012)

i don't think i ever spent months playing just one game... games i normally spend on for longs times are MMOs


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## Dreaming (Apr 16, 2012)

I pretty much spent a whole week playing GTA: SA back in 2009, non-stop, with very little sleep. When I did sleep, it was in front of the TV. I was playing on my older sister's PS2 that she had left behind when she moved out. Then she came to visit that weekend and took it back, a sad day that was. 

Before that, I used to waste every hour of every day on online games 2007-2008 (shit like AQW, if that counts).


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## Littlerock (Apr 16, 2012)

Dreaming said:


> I pretty much spent a whole week playing* GTA: SA* back in 2009, non-stop, with very little sleep. When I did sleep, it was in front of the TV. I was playing on my older sister's PS2 that she had left behind when she moved out. Then she came to visit that weekend and took it back, a sad day that was.
> 
> Before that, I used to waste every hour of every day on online games 2007-2008 (shit like AQW, if that counts).



I forgot how much I love that game, despite never having owned it. I played the hell out of my friend's though, and even found a few undocumented glitches. (Marine life flying at eye-height was by far my favorite.)


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## Kit H. Ruppell (Apr 16, 2012)

Pokemon.


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## Fenrari (Apr 16, 2012)

Morrowind (According to Raptr, I've played more Morrowind than any other of it's players) + WoW


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## Ley (Apr 16, 2012)

fucking minecraft x3


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## Aetius (Apr 16, 2012)

Haven't stopped playing Rome: Total War since 2004.


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## iconmaster (Apr 16, 2012)

I've currently been playing the later installments if Might and Magic (VI-VIII specifically), an they have provided me with countless hours of fun.

Speaking of NetHack, I'm and advid player as well. The computer and I have been in a long cycle; with me playing and it killing me off on floor 10 or so. It's almost mesmerizing.


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## Aldino (Apr 16, 2012)

The Orange Box effectively stole a year of my life.


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## ShÃ nwÃ ng (Apr 16, 2012)

Non-RPG's:

Deus Ex. I explored every inch, dialogue and style of play I could in that game.

Goldeneye 64. First FPS experience outside of Castle Wolfenstein. Such a dumb teen, tried all sorts of techniques to fly a helicopter. (never happened) I unlocked every cheat but one in that game. Fucken Silver PP7. So not worth it.


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## sunandshadow (Apr 16, 2012)

Hmm, let's see.  I spent 6 months playing Dofus, that's my record for any mmo out of almost 2 dozen.  I played Vagrant Story 3 times, that's my record for a single player RPG.  Played Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 7 twice each.  Played Plants vs. Zombies (tower defense) a ton, not the main game but Vasebreaker Endless - it pretty much is like a superior version of solitaire to me.


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## Ariosto (Apr 16, 2012)

No real idea, _Super Smash Bros Brawl_ probably takes the cake, though; when you've deleted the savefile and unlocked all the characters every single time through normal Brawl matches, you know you've spent a lot of time in that game.


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## Lobar (Apr 17, 2012)

I've played through the various Mechwarrior games a countless number of times.  Giant mecha combat simulation just never gets old.

If anyone's interested, Mechwarrior 4: Mercenaries is free-to-download _legally_ at mektek.net, both single-player campaign and the multiplayer, and they have a huge add-on pack of universe-accurate weapons and 'mech chassis to boot.



Tycho said:


> Varies from scroll to scroll, but blessed identify scrolls have a chance to identify multiple items or ALL of your items, depending on your luck.  Cursed scrolls with ostensibly negative effects like SoPunishment, SoFire and SoAmnesia have their negative effects amplified.  Cursed genocide scrolls spawn half a dozen monsters of the type you specify all around you.  (Can be very useful in certain situations).  Generally, cursed beneficial scrolls do the opposite of what the scroll would normally do, while blessed scrolls do it BETTER.  There is a massive spoiler wiki for NetHack at WikiHack that breaks this stuff down in detail.



Once I picked up and read an unknown scroll on the third level that turned out to be a cursed scroll of genocide.  Fastest I've been gang-skullfucked by a bunch of mind flayers, ever.


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## Alastair Snowpaw (Apr 17, 2012)

MMORPGS because of all the grinding and training which i don't mind.
and fighting games because there is so much to learn about them and playing others leads to an infinate pool of challanges


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## DarrylWolf (Apr 17, 2012)

Any Final Fantasy Tactics game- they are awesome and addictive. Metroid Fusion is one of the greatest games of all time, even if it takes less time to play this game as it takes to watch a "LOTR" movie. Awesome soundtrack for a GBA game, excellent plot, and challenging boss battles. No matter how many times I've played it, encountering the SA-X- in later stages, she is unavoidable- always causes my heart to skip a beat. Only problems include- no sound test feature, no boss rush mode, and it doesn't look like we'll be getting a sequel anytime soon.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJxfz2nZC1E


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## Tybis (Apr 17, 2012)

AristÃ³crates Carranza said:


> No real idea, _Super Smash Bros Brawl_ probably takes the cake, though; when you've deleted the savefile and unlocked all the characters every single time through normal Brawl matches, you know you've spent a lot of time in that game.


You know you've played a long time when you find out you've gotten every sticker.

Brawl easily has taken the most time for me... 300+ hours, apparently.
The only other games that may come close are the KotOR games, Cave Story, and BlazBlue.


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## Bipolar Bear (Apr 17, 2012)

Guild Wars 2 beta. That thing is addictive! Sure it may be a beta, but a good one at that.


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## Ariosto (Apr 17, 2012)

Tybis said:


> You know you've played a long time when you find out you've gotten every sticker.



Things like this are what make me pity completionists at times, dumb RNG/Luck Factor.


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## Metalmeerkat (Apr 17, 2012)

RedFoxTwo said:


> The game is designed to be outwitted, not outgunned. Don't take enemies head on as it's sure to kill you.
> I for instance just mindraped everything in my way so it became friends with me ('Charm Monster' spell). Then I just let my wall of mindraped flesh take the hits for me. Works a charm.



But it usually ends up worse when I try to outwit the game. Like when I had the bright idea of using pick axes to quickly dig down to the bottom, which usually results in death after a few levels. Grinding also isn't horribly effective, especially since finding safe (see: non-lethal) food is hard to come by, and I usually eat everything I can (sorry mittens, but my hunger bar is on empty). But my biggest problem is that I can't find out what anything does, since randomly trying spells and scrolls ends in death after enough tries. So I ignore anything involving drinking or reading or magic.

I usually never make it past the fifth floor alive.


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## Lobar (Apr 17, 2012)

Metalmeerkat said:


> But it usually ends up worse when I try to outwit the game. Like when I had the bright idea of using pick axes to quickly dig down to the bottom, which usually results in death after a few levels. Grinding also isn't horribly effective, especially since finding safe (see: non-lethal) food is hard to come by, and I usually eat everything I can (sorry mittens, but my hunger bar is on empty). But my biggest problem is that I can't find out what anything does, since randomly trying spells and scrolls ends in death after enough tries. So I ignore anything involving drinking or reading or magic.
> 
> I usually never make it past the fifth floor alive.



You're gonna need magical stuff at some point.  There's more creative ways of identifying the effects of things than drinking/reading/wearing/zapping them, and the #name command is a tremendous help.  There's an identification guide at http://www.steelypips.org/nethack/id_faq.html depending on how OK you are with spoilers (nobody ascends without _any_ spoilers ).


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## Viridis (Apr 17, 2012)

For me, It would have to be the Half-Life series (including Portal), followed by the Elder-Scrolls, and in a close third is Fallout 3 and it's additional maps.

I think I've played through the entire Half-Life series at least five or six times, I just like to explore every single spot on a map.  This is why games like Oblivion and Fallout 3 keep me so occupied.


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## SirRob (Apr 17, 2012)

I think MapleStory regretfully takes the prize for the game I've put the most hours into. Although MMOs aren't really fair because they're always changing content. I think Super Smash Bros. Melee comes into a distant second (although I can't play it at all after transitioning to Brawl), and then Pokemon Diamond.


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## Cain (Apr 17, 2012)

Minecraft for a bit, Skyrim too, New Vegas, Battlefield 3, Sims 3, Mass Effect series, and many others. Oh, and Killing Floor, and Left For Dead 2.


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## Littlerock (Apr 17, 2012)

Come to think of it, I've probably put the better part of a month into Insaniquarium. When all of your 10+ fish are shitting either diamonds or stars, you've been online too long.


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## RedFoxTwo (Apr 18, 2012)

Jagged Edge said:


> Minecraft for a bit, Skyrim too, New Vegas, Battlefield 3, Sims 3, Mass Effect series, and many others. Oh, and Killing Floor, and Left For Dead 2.


I commend you on your excellent taste in gaming.


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## Pocketsf2f (Apr 18, 2012)

An old game probably not too many people remember that I was hooked on and played quite repeatedly was Toonstruck.  When I was younger I was just hooked on the story, the dialogue, the fun artwork, and solving the puzzles.  That and during high school Beavis and Butthead's Virtual Stupidity was something I'd play often as well.

I really don't have any games though today that I play hardcore like I did when I was younger I'm afraid.


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## AshfursRevenge (Apr 18, 2012)

Gonna have to be Spyro: Year of the Dragon when it first came out. Im still playing it,(Even though i've beat it many times) it's such a wonderful game.


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## Rictus Goat (Apr 18, 2012)

Resident Evil: 5 and Pokemon have kept me busy the longest of anything that I own. I find the replay value of RE:5 absolutely ridiculous and I just can NOT freaking stop. This is including all the DLC and the fact that it's the only game that can keep my interest enough that I go through and do what I can to earn ALL of the trophies. Pokemon... is Pokemon. I don't feel I need to get into that one.


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## Kaspar Avaan (Apr 18, 2012)

Team Fortress 2 (300+ hours), Skyrim (150+ hours), Bioshock (100+ hours). And countless hours on all the PokÃ©mon games over the years.


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## ErikutoSan (Apr 18, 2012)

This MMO because of the PvP

[video=youtube;coDSvmUoA5U]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coDSvmUoA5U[/video]


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## Catilda Lily (Apr 18, 2012)

Morrowind. I played that all Summer and part of the Fall until our Xbox broke.


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## Dreaming (Apr 18, 2012)

barefootfoof said:


> I forgot how much I love that game, despite never having owned it. I played the hell out of my friend's though, and even found a few undocumented glitches. (Marine life flying at eye-height was by far my favorite.)



It always had the most hilarious glitches and cheats. The cars float away cheat was just priceless.


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## Kangamutt (Apr 18, 2012)

Minecraft has fallen into this as of late. Ever since my coworker started up an SMP server, the game seems a whole lot more fun to play. Although my house is slated for demolition to make way for new building projects.


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## Littlerock (Apr 19, 2012)

Dreaming said:


> It always had the most hilarious glitches and cheats. The cars float away cheat was just priceless.



I remember one particular place that was in a steep valley, with lots of palms, that when you put in the cars fly + all cars have nos + cars float away + chaos + all green lights + pedestrians are armed, there would be basically a never-ending stream of cop cars just FLYING overhead, right off of the hill, then smashing into buildings at the 20th floor or so. Some of the best in-game photos ever taken were with that combination on.


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## KuramaBingyi (Apr 19, 2012)

It's a tie between X-COM: UFO Defense and Freespace 2.

X-COM for being completely awesome (Can't wait for the Firaxis remake, no matter how much they change the strategy mechanics), and Freespace 2 being the best moddable game I have on my computer.


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## Splash-Otter (Apr 19, 2012)

dc universe online, black ops, skate 1 2 3, mass effect 1 2 3, pokemon, I've been gaming for over 20 years so yeah.


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## Ames (Apr 19, 2012)

Starcraft: broodwar battlenet probably wins that prize.

I've been playing that shit FOREVER


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## S.L.p (Apr 21, 2012)

fallout 3 game of the year. ( i say game of the year cuz it has all the dlc stuff with it ) ^_^


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## Leadbelly (Apr 21, 2012)

Took me months to 100% Prototype. Then there's the unholy amount of the time spent on Resident Evil 4, 5, and Smash Bros. Melee.


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## Aldino (Apr 21, 2012)

Fallout 3 kept me busy for a really long while actually. However they did have six seperate DLC's.


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## Viridis (Apr 21, 2012)

Not many people my age can say this, but when I was a younger my favorite game was Super Mario Bros. on the SNES.  Between my sisters and I, we spent a lot of our time playing it.

I do enjoy gaming, but I just got to thinking that while I might have logged 50+ hours on more modern games,  I probably spent close to 300+ hours playing Super Mario.


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## Zydrate Junkie (Apr 21, 2012)

So far, I would have to say Morrowind has taken the most time out of any of the games I have played. I've played it enough to have the terrible sound of a Cliff Racer scarred into my memory.


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## Sar (Apr 21, 2012)

Ariosto said:


> No real idea, _Super Smash Bros Brawl_ probably takes the cake, though; when you've deleted the savefile and unlocked all the characters every single time through normal Brawl matches, you know you've spent a lot of time in that game.



Brawl was horrible to fully complete. Especially if you are such a perfectionist who wants every collectable in game. D=


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## Baloris (Apr 22, 2012)

As a kid, Descent 3 and Quake 3 were probably my two most played games.  Still play them on and off, not as much these days, though.  When it comes to sheer time invested, Garry's Mod takes the cake at ~4300 hours and counting, and that doesn't even count Garry's Mod 9 or early 10 before 2008.


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## Fenrari (Apr 22, 2012)

Civilization 4 and 5...

Because JUST ONE MORE TURN!


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## Namba (Apr 22, 2012)

Bully. That game was just packed with so much shit I wanted to make sure I found everything in it. Took a little over a year.


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## Mxpklx (Apr 22, 2012)

Fenrari said:


> Civilization 4 and 5...
> 
> Because JUST ONE MORE TURN!


I've never played Civilization to be honest, but I love Civilization revolution. That game sucked so much time out of me. 
We should play it together sometime if you have it :3


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## Yago (Apr 22, 2012)

In order from least to greatest:

WoW, Final Fantasy 6, DotA, LoL.

There's probably a few in between DotA and LoL, but I can't think of them atm.


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## Echo Wolf (Apr 22, 2012)

Well I hate to admit it but Runescape was the biggest time waster for me, but I am 4+ years clean and have barely looked back. Now it's pretty much any Bethesda RPG that is my biggest time waster.


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## Mxpklx (Apr 22, 2012)

Echo Wolf said:


> Well I hate to admit it but Runescape was the biggest time waster for me, but I am 4+ years clean and have barely looked back. Now it's pretty much any Bethesda RPG that is my biggest time waster.


I had 3 legit level 100 accounts all hacked and locked. I regret ever playing that game.


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## Echo Wolf (Apr 22, 2012)

Mxpklx said:


> I had 3 legit level 100 accounts all hacked and locked. I regret ever playing that game.


From the looks of the game now, it's completely broken anyway. Armydyl godsword, dragon claws, termoil, and nex armor just to name a few completely unbalance things in that game. Plus they basically added their own real world trading into the game now to get more money from members. Glad I stopped playing long time ago, I was level 96.


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## Maszrum (Apr 23, 2012)

Diablo 2 probably. Mass Effect series. L4D 1&2 for some reason (probably cause of people with who I was playing them).


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## kylr23 (Apr 23, 2012)

sim city 2000


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## Shark_the_raptor (Apr 25, 2012)

Skyrim.  Lots of Skyrim.  Before that, I'd say Kingdom Hearts 2 and Star Wars Battlefront 2.


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## Judge Spear (May 8, 2012)

I still play Gradius V. I have a little over 400 hours logged on it. I am probably the biggest shooter nut on FAF...probably. When I got it at 15 years old, I did not stop playing until I beat it multiple times. This was from about noon to 7 in the evening. My all time favorite PS2 and Konami game ever made. The only other games that come close to the time are DoDonPachi 4 (the only reason I still have an Xbox) and Oblivion. I have no idea why, but arcade shooters, especially bullet Hell, never get boring to me. It just pisses me off how most of the top quality titles will never see the states at least on console, handheld, or PC. I don't count Phone ports. >.>


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## lupinealchemist (May 8, 2012)

Got a feeling Star Ocean will occupy a lot of my time for a while, longer if I feel the need to accomplish everything including Universe and Chaos.


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## Arik~Vulpes (May 9, 2012)

Before my gold membership expired I spent almost 90 hours on BF3. Now I can't stop playing Empire Total War.


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