There’s some discussion going around the Interweb about Videogames that keep pulling you back, and it’s got me thinking about the games that’ve kept their grip on me over the years.
I mean, there’s games that I absolutely love, like Star Wars:KOTOR, the Zelda games (especially Ocarina of Time), and even the Halo games, which I’m playing through again right now. BUT, if I was to gauge it in terms of sheer addictiveness, there are two games that I cannot even allow in my vicinity: Eastside Hockey Manager and Civilization II. I have lost months of my life to this duo of doom, and have such a hold of me that I’ve had to officially ban them from my life. I shouldn’t even be talking about them, really, such is my worry that I’ll hunt them down and abandon all else. To explain their pull is difficult, though I’m sure it would be similar to being able to smoke crack without care or worry. I even have to ignore their entire genres, I can’t allow myself to play any sport sims or world building games for fear of a similar addiction.
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I apologize to anyone that tries either of these games because of me. Please remember to eat, and drink lots of water. It will pass eventually, unless it doesn’t.
As a sad state of affairs, I have lost my lust for video games. This is not to say I don’t play them anymore, I just don’t play them as much. What I do love now though are MMOG (massively multiplayer online games) like Worlds of Warcraft. I love having other people I can group with and adventure with. After you’ve played one, single player games just seem kinda pointless.
As for the games you are talking about, I just could never get into the micro management games. I like games where you play 1 character. Just give me a sword and point me in the direction of the dragon and i’m happy as a pig in shite!
Dark Wizard.
Hey Kevin, Civ 4 was released recently. Is it any good?
I think the fact that the makers of Eastside Hockey Manager use an analogy to crack on the banner on the right side of their main page is very telling.
I remember how addicted you were to eastside hockey manager..haha.!
For me it was Civ I II and III. I played those games endlessly.
In my childhood it was Maniac Mansion. I still to this day think it’s one of the best games of all time.
Maniac Mansion, yes.
RIP Adventure games. http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html
May you one day come back from the dead and haunt us… in a nice way.
I could very easily + promptly become addicted to Tetris Flash. Once I start, I don’t want to stop and have been prone to bribing when Kevin doesn’t want to challenge me anymore.
The withdrawl symptoms include, but are not limited to, seeing Tetris pieces fall as you are trying to sleep, daydreaming about Tetris senarios and you can handle them better next game and humming the theme song through out the day.
Lordy, was reading Download Squad and they mentioned a free, opensource version of Civilization II, that’ll run on pretty much anything:
http://www.freeciv.org/index.php/Freeciv
I remember seeing this installing Cygwin, but never looked into it. That’s just plain evil.
My friend just recently bought an old Nintendo system with the game bubble bobble. Now I want one. I used to steal quarters from my parents so I could play it at the corner convenience store.
They made bubble bubble for gameboy advance but I don’t think it came to North America. We got our copy on eBay from a sellar in the UK and if you search for “bubble bobble old and new” you can still find some copies. It’s called old and new because you can choose to play the classic NES/arcade version or a modernized version with updated graphics. The old version rocks.
Joel:
I picked up Civ 4 and it’s damn good. I like that you can play an entire campaign in 2-3 hours even on marathon mode. Less than that if you’re like me and just go straight for the conquest victory.
You can download ROMs off the net which play all kinds of old video games on your computer. One of the more popular ones is the MAME system. I’m sure with a couple good searches you can find a Bubble Bobble that can be played on your computer. As well as just about any NES, Sega Genesis, N64 etc. games.
Well, I’m still playing Suikoden 1 for PSX, and CivII for the computer. Here’s one to think on. Games you wish you didn’t sink money into. Everquest and Worlds of Warcraft. Same game, different graphics.. man when I think of the time and money wasted getting no pleasure. Sorry Billy, I hate MMORPG. But then again, I like DOA:XBV!! So, there’s no accounting for taste! :P