Games that took up your time

[Gabriel Girard]

So I'm about 35 hours into Okami and I'm still enjoying it - I'm watching less movies because I'm playing. What other games took over your life?

Diablo II is probably the biggest one for me.

[Steve T Power]

The biggest:

Gran Turismo 2 (PSOne) - literally over 500 hours.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - My game clock read 263 hours when i lost my initial save file. I've since started two new games (one on 360, the other on PS3) and have about 20 hours collectively between the two.
Final Fantasy XI (PS2, PC, then 360) - The only MMO i've been hooked on for any significant amount of time. I started in beta testing the original PS2 release and over two years after release i was still playing pretty regularly. Reactiviated my account after a lengthy break when it was released for xbox360, and played until Age of conan was released.
Diablo - When i worked for a computer place we used to play this sucker (4-player LAN) after hours and finish all 16 levels pretty much every night before going home.

[Andrew Forbes]

Terminator: Future Shock. I f***ing loved that game and miss it dearly. I've never been so immersed in a game's world. Nothing can compare to creeping around the nighttime ruins of a post-nuclear L.A. with an M16 and the all-too-near sounds of a T-800's servos as your only company. It's aged, no doubt, but I'll never love another game like I did that one.

[Boba Fett]

Shenmue: I rented it the first weekend it was out early Saturday morning and played it almost non-stop until Sunday afternoon. I beat it a few more times on Dreamcast after eventually buying it and its one of the sole reasons I still own the system.

Fallout 3: I blasted through this a month or two ago and was ready to start a new game (playing for Good Karma) before returning the game back to my friend.

Knights of the Old Republic: I've probably played through that one a good four or five times.

Civilization II: I'm sure many days have been lost on this classic.

Goldeneye: When it came out, I played it for at least two hours a day, every day with my sister over the summer.

[J.M. Vargas]

Resident Evil: played and beat multiple times on PS1, Saturn (with an extra 'survival' type mini-game as an exclusive), Gamecube (awesome remake that messed with your expectations) and Nintendo DS (the damn phonograph-you-spin-with-the-stylus puzzle keeps messing with me). Then there's Resident Evil 2. Played and beat that bitch multiple times (many more than the first "RE") on PS1, Dreamcast and Nintendo 64 (the sped-up loading makes this my favorite version). Except for a brief love affair with the Dreamcast version of RE Code: Veronica (which I beat several times) no other "RE" game has consumed me like the first two in the series.

NiGHTS... Into Dreams and Sonic R: easily my most played Saturn games (these two are the one's that get played first when hooking up the old Saturn to the tube TV) since they offer an aural experience with arcadey, master-the-pattern gameplay that puts me the closest a game has come to put me in a 'Zen' state.

Killing Time for 3DO is the most atmospheric, creepy and cool first-person shooter that nobody else played or remembers playing. I dug it though (who doesn't love shooting ducks or giant slugs point-blank with a shotgun?) and played it so much I memorized the map. Same with the first Turok: Dinosaur Hunter FPS for N64; despite the fog and repeating textures I fell in love with this game, to the point the sequels (with better textures/less fog) disgusted me by getting away from the ferocious simplicity of the first game's 'armed Indian versus dinosaurs' formula.

The sequels got progressively more difficult (to the point a guide was almost mandatory) but the first Tomb Raider game was a thing of beauty that truly felt like an "Indiana Jones" game come to life. Finished the PS1 version, finished the Saturn version several times (still own the save file) and beat it on the freakin' Nokia N-Gage! Ditto for Super Mario 64 on the N64 (the DS version blows because it doesn't have analog control); neither "Sunshine" nor the recently-released "Galaxy" sequels compare to the simple brilliance of Mario's first 3D adventure. I collected all 120 stars for each of the cartridge's four save files, so I erased them all and started again from scratch. The analog control makes all the difference.

Pokemon Puzzle League on Nintendo 64 and GameBoy Color. The latter is my current 'go to' game for portable gaming coming to and from work, the same way Ridge Racer DS was my portable gaming obsession for months prior to Hot Shots Golf for PSP being the game that sucked my portable gaming time. Can't juggle several games when playing portable; it's one game for months before I switch to something else.

Halo (XBox), Bust-a-Move (PS1, Saturn, Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, etc.), Mario Kart 64 and GoldenEye 007 (both N64) were the console games that ate me and my friends' multi-player time more than any other games, before or since. The sequels/spinoffs felt off to me and my gaming posse when they came out, so we stuck with the originals and collectively said 'screw online play.' Even in single-player mode they're still addictive, but with friends and extra controllers the gaming trash talk uttered while playing these games has yet to be matched in foul mouthed utterances.

Tetrisphere (Nintendo 64), The Next Tetris (PS1, Dreamcast) and The New Tetris (Nintendo 64) offer variations on the tried-and-tested Tetris formula that are unique-enough to warrant extended play when you have the time and mood to block the world and just get in with the flow. Neil Voss' techno-mixed-with-Earthly-chants MIDI tunes for the N64 "Tetris" games are a key ingredient in the 'sucking yourself into a gaming state of stupor' trance these games have over me. None of my friends got into "Tetris" though (bubble-busting with "Bust-A-Move" was another story) so sadly these multiplayer-blessed games have remained solo endeavors.

Record of Lodoss War and Rayman 2 are my most played Dreamcast games, easily. Hours upon hours playing (or replaying in the case of the rather short "Rayman 2") just to lose myself in their worlds despite both being completely different. Haven't fired up "Lodoss War" in a while though, maybe it's time I look for that file somewhere in my closet.

Soul Calibur (Dreamcast) and Tekken 2 & 3 (PS1) were me and my friends' fighting game nirvanas. Better-looking sequels have come in the past decade but these oldies still look and play good-enough for us.

Yoshi's Island: Super Mario World 2 (SNES and GameBoy Advance) is the pinnacle of 2D platform gaming to me. The premise, the music, the tight control, the whaling baby... simply perfect from beginning to end. The sequels on the Nintendo 64 and DS are utter and complete s*** (OK, they're decent) compared to the perfection that the first game is. Ditto for Namco's little-seen Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PS1), although the sequels spawned on PS2 and GBA are sufficiently good to compensate somewhat for the little exposure most gamers got to the first game (a Wii remake of the 10 year-old original "Klonoa" has just been released in the States).

There are many more games that I'm forgetting (my gaming has waned since the PS2 days, when I discovered I didn't want to keep up with the technological rat race and rediscovered old games that were more fun than newer one's) so I'll follow this up later with another list.

[mkiker2089]

Vargas, go outside some, you'll like it

I'm going old school on yal and going to throw out Castlevania Symphony of the Night. I played it ad naseum on the PSX and guess what the first game I bought for the Ps3 was. I'll give you a hint. I've also been playing the free demos. I've got a bunch, too many to name.

I've recently dug out the NES also and it's taking my time. Games are plentiful and usually cheap so I've picked up some that I remember dreaming about as a kid but never having. I've also picked up some I never heard of. Freedom Force for example and Hogan's Alley (I knew of the arcade version only).

edit-

I'm with you on RE1 and 2. I want them on the PS3. I have RE on the DS and it's awesomeness.

[TemporalWisdom]

Civilization II: I'm sure many days have been lost on this classic.

Same here. But around the turn of the century I loaned it to a friend and never got it back. Eventually I went to Civilization III.

The Final Fantasy series. I have I, II, IV through X, and XII. I just play them through, in sequence, and start over when I've finished the most recent installment.

Dungeon Keeper. Classic.