What's the Most Addictive Game You've Ever Played?

[JamFDUK]

What's the game that took/takes up far, far too much of your time, and had you humming the intro music in your sleep?

For me it's a close tie between Disgaea and Harvest Moon: Back to Nature.

Both games I sacrificed social life, sanity and basic hygiene for. Sometimes the only thing that stopped me playing was because I had massive headaches from staring at the screen for too long. And whenever I wasn't playing them, I NEEDED to play them. I'd just constantly think about them. I was constantly on the brink of sacrificing relationships for them, it got so bad.

Hence, why I'm scared to hear Disgaea 2 is coming out. It's like offering a child a lifetime's supply of chocolate... with exploses attached.

WAAA!

[bash]

probably minigolf on my Sony Ericsson T610

[Wools]

I've never been addicited to a game!

Halo, Outrun 2, Pro Evo 2, Sonic and a few others are games I play often since their release but I've never been addicted to any. I tend to play a story based game like MGS through to completion in a few days and games like Halo I regulary play but not one solely for ages.

Nope, can't think of one!

[Concept]

It depends on what you class as addiction. The hours you put in, how much you think about something, or how many times you've played it?

The most hours I've put into a game probably comes between Final Fantasy VII (completed roughly eight times), Shenmue I/II (completed each of them four or five times), San Andreas (265 hours in), or PSO (300+ hours if I remember).

As for the game I think about most, and which has escalated about my mind more than any other - ICO without question.

The game I've played most of (in terms of completion)... is probably Rez. I've put an awful lot of time into it, and due to it's main mode being completable in roughly an hour, I've often sat down for a quick go and persuaded myself to go the whole distance. Probably completed it over 80 times since release, and that's a restrained estimate.

[Zanzaki]

World of Warcraft.

When it got to a point where I dreamed about it each and everynight I realized that I should quit playing it

No school, no job, and world of warcraft makes a bad combination.

[babs]

Tetris on Gameboy I think, that drove me mad due to not being able to sleep or think straight.

EA Hockey on MD, a friend and I spent 3 hours a night ritually on this for months.

[Widegoat]

I find myself not being able to leave a game that I'm enjoying the plot to, until I've finished it completley. Beyond Good and Evil, POP Sands of Time, MGS had me unable to do or really think about anything else until I'd finished them. But once finished, I tend not to go back to them for some reason.

Arcade style games are a bit different. I lost a lot of my life to the first Mario Kart for example. A good online version of that would be awesome.

The only game that I still play religiously virtually every day is Street Fighter 2. I love it, and have been playing for 16 years. And I still get my arse handed to me on a plate, every time I play on Live.

That's part of the appeal though, for me at least.

[C']

Final Fantasy XI Online. This November will mark my 2 year anniversary playing it.

[buster_broon]

probably Final Fantasy 7

couldnt put it down until i managed to breed a Golden Chocobo - so i could get the knights of the round materia

finished and beat Sephiroth in about 40hours ish and it took a further 35 hours to breed teh Chocobo's and beat the 3 new monsters that appeared when the game was completed

once Mime evolved it did get rather easy

but the wife was neglected for a while when it came out

[Concept]

I find myself not being able to leave a game that I'm enjoying the plot to, until I've finished it completley. Beyond Good and Evil, POP Sands of Time, MGS had me unable to do or really think about anything else until I'd finished them. But once finished, I tend not to go back to them for some reason.

Arcade style games are a bit different. I lost a lot of my life to the first Mario Kart for example. A good online version of that would be awesome.

The only game that I still play religiously virtually every day is Street Fighter 2. I love it, and have been playing for 16 years. And I still get my arse handed to me on a plate, every time I play on Live.

That's part of the appeal though, for me at least.

Absolutely. I'm a single-sitter gamer myself (or near enough) when the game's compelling enough. I remember Christmas '98 and Ocarina of Time. I barely left the house from start to finish. Only an occasional sleep/bath/meal kept me away from it.

That's another way you can look at addiction... the initial spell of a game you fall for, and how it grips you, rather than the total amount it takes up.

[endo]

Street Fighter III, on Live. I've just battered this consistently since it came out last year. I've no idea how many hours I've clocked up on it in total, but it must be a hell of a lot.

I just can't stop playing it- there's always something new to learn or some other trick to suss out. It's utterly amazing how Capcom have made such a deep game.

I was pretty much addicted to Super Mario World when it came out too.

[Lebowski]

Animal Crossing had me in its grip for a long time, i had to see what was going on im my village everyday i dident want to miss diging for that elusive last fossil or hunting down the last bit of furniture, or catching some more fish for my musem or just running errands and trying to pay of that evil tom nook.

God help me when the ds version comes out i think my ds will acompany me everywere when it dose

[Hodge]

PGR2, still playing it online after nearly 2 years. Couldn`t get me of it when I first had It, completed it with all platinums and the live community with this title has been great.

[spagmasterswift]

I've felt very compelled to keep playing Mario Kart, Bomberman, Meteos, GTA:SA, Killer7, Rez, VJ, Ikaruga and especially Advance Wars.

Obviously spent may hours on story based games like Zelda but that's not really through addiction but a desire to see more of the story and complete the quest. Once finished I move on.

Games will grip me if they contain at least one of the below:

Instantly replay-able
Allow me huge amounts of freedom, both within the game world and system
Have me thinking about them while I'm at work, down the pub, etc.

The only game I've had to go cold turkey from was DMC3 (which for me ticks all the above boxes).

[Concept]

Have to agree. Most games these days that I repeatedly come back to, are those which offer freeform elements, or at least freedom in terms of exploration/how to use the systems available.