I had a discussion with my friend on games that we would enjoy playing once again Campaign wise, or just for the sake of completing all the sidequests.

I thought about all my FPSs and certain Action RPGs. I was stuck, I could not think up a suitable game that I would want to play over again, and enjoy it as much as the first time.

Although I loved the Godfather game and I almost completed it at 100% (did not have all the Murder styles) I tried playing it all over from the beginning with a nice new character (this time with a chummy stomach) but I could not budge beyond the first mission.

In the case of the NWN2 Campaign (The Expansion and basic) I could not bare to finish them even though I tried with fifteen different characters and still I got bored, misinteressted...

It's a long list of games for me that I would *never* think of playing again. But only one comes to my mind that I would happily play again... UFO: Enemy Unknown, and UFO: Terror from the Deep. The only two games that make me want to go from beginning to end with a smile on my face...

What does the community think? Do you have games you could play all over again from beginning to end, without grunting how boring it is?

WriterX

Hrrm...Jagged Alliance, X-Com 1/2, Half-Life, Half-Life 2, Unreal Tournament, Civilisation. Quite a lot. If a game can hold my attention for more than a week, then it'll get replayed sometime; but then I'm a big MMO fan and that's pure replay.

As far as First Person, Thief 2 and Deus Ex stand out. I also replayed Marathon and Marathon 2 a couple of years ago, just for nostalgia's sake.

For RPGs, Fallout and Fallout 2 were excellent replays.

As far as strategy goes, I've played through Myth at least three times, and the various Rome Total War campaigns about as much (which is impressive, given how much the voiceovers annoyed me. Learn to frickin' pronounce Latin, you twerps!). And as a guilty pleasure, I've played X-Com: Apocalypse more times than a gamer should ever admit.

More recently, Mass Effect merited a replay mostly because it was quick -- once you've done it once, the second play through is very fast indeed. I started replaying Bioshock but, enh.

Ah, yes, I shall add to my list Jagged Alliance: Wildfire. 100% goodyness in good.

courier:
As far as First Person, Thief 2 and Deus Ex stand out. I also replayed Marathon and Marathon 2 a couple of years ago, just for nostalgia's sake.

For RPGs, Fallout and Fallout 2 were excellent replays.

As far as strategy goes, I've played through Myth at least three times, and the various Rome Total War campaigns about as much (which is impressive, given how much the voiceovers annoyed me. Learn to frickin' pronounce Latin, you twerps!). And as a guilty pleasure, I've played X-Com: Apocalypse more times than a gamer should ever admit.

More recently, Mass Effect merited a replay mostly because it was quick -- once you've done it once, the second play through is very fast indeed. I started replaying Bioshock but, enh.

I only get up to the point where I show Ryan my golf swing then I turn it off. The game's story exits stage left after that and isn't worth sifting through.

Deus Ex. I can play it over and over. Loving it every time. So damn good. After finishing I usually want to play it again.

But I know what you mean about loving a game the first time around. The first time I played Mass Effect I was astounded at its awesomeness. I started playing it again last week and by the time I got to the end-game, I was done with it. Great game, but I couldn't be bothered to finish it the second time 'round.

I can say the same about many JRPGs. When all the excitement of the story is no longer a surprise, they lose their appeal greatly.

I think a lot that makes a game replayable depends on how much of the action is directly done by YOU, the player. Half-life and friends are great because you are the one doing everything. In RPGs, it often feels like you're telling your characters what to, then they go do it while you watch.

I went through a stage of playing through Max Payne, then 2, then the original again, over and over for about a year and a half.

Can always give Metal Gear Solid and the Resi series some replay time n'all.

I buy games with an eye to replayability, so my list is very long. Heck, I still replay Marathon every now and then just for a hoot, and I'm still debating whether it's worth digging up DOSBox and installing XCOM on my current desktop... but that'd open the floodgates for Civ, Close Combat, Panzer General, and so many other old favourites I'm afraid someone would find my withered corpse slumped over my keyboard after having forgotten to eat and drink.

-- Steve

Anton P. Nym:
I buy games with an eye to replayability, so my list is very long. Heck, I still replay Marathon every now and then just for a hoot, and I'm still debating whether it's worth digging up DOSBox and installing XCOM on my current desktop... but that'd open the floodgates for Civ, Close Combat, Panzer General, and so many other old favourites I'm afraid someone would find my withered corpse slumped over my keyboard after having forgotten to eat and drink.

-- Steve

At least you will say in the end "It was totally worth it."

Ive become really bad at replaying, maybe due to the huge ammount of unplayed games I still have. I replayed all the Final Fantasies from I to X, althought the most replayed is definetly VI. I've replayed Mario 64 twice, Mario Kart DD like 20 million times (I love it), Mario Galaxy like twice too... and Halo 2 once. I could never again pickup Halo 1 at the very idea of having to replay the bridges and the Library.

For a game with a lot of plot twists (at least, plot twists that I DON'T guess before the game is a tenth over), it can be interesting to play through the game a second time, noting all the clues. But that's just me.

Half-Life 1/2, Baldur's Gate 2, Dungeon Keeper, Monkey Island 1&2, Day Of The Tentacle, Grim Fandango (well I would if I hadn't lost my damn copy...) and several others. Though they're usually never as good the second time through, it's like re-reading a book. Even though you remember everything, it doesn't stop it from being an enjoyable experience. Especially BG2. You can just keep replaying over and over and over choosing different quests, character classes etc. It's genius how well that game is made.

WriterX:

In the case of the NWN2 Campaign (The Expansion and basic) I could not bare to finish them even though I tried with fifteen different characters and still I got bored, misinteressted...

i've found exactly the same thing. Never gotten past the third chapter

Games I've enjoyed replaying in the past...

Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss (DOS) - That one is surprisingly deep and intricate. I've played it through a few times since it came out (1992) and each time was thoroughly enjoyable. I think it's one of the the first commercial 3D games actually.

Ultima VIII: Pagan (DOS) - Everybody hated this game, but I really enjoyed it and still do again every once in a while. I even made an impressive little house by stacking broken planks of wood with pixel perfect accuracy. Does that make me weird? Of course, blowing it up was just as fun. ;-)

I must be the only person who likes RPGs without party members. I cringe at party planning and group dynamics. I like playing the game how I want to play it without worrying about wiping everyone else's asses after they repeatedly shit themselves.

If I had held on to more games from the past, I'm sure I'd be playing them again and again.

Devil May Cry 3, because the combat has so much depth, it doesn't get boring. To a lesser extent, the other DMC's as well (exclusing 2), again, because of the combat.

God of War II because it fun to see how much harder the more intense difficulties are, as well as going into new game + and tearing through everything.

Zelda games, in general, have decent replay value incase you missed stuff, or even just for the hell of it.

Tales of Symphonia because you could go through the game in different ways (ends the same, but the way you get there is different,d some enemies can only be fought in certain paths... liek Zelos).

Older games that are short have good replay value because of the extreme shortness.

as others have said, deus ex (greatest game ever). played it 4 times though in less than a year after playing it for the first time and every time its been just as good as the first. actually its probably better the second time through since youll have a much better grasp of how the game works and which augs are pretty much useless, but its amazing.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. is another one ill mention, on my third playthough now, pretty good for replayability, kind of like oblivion or morrowind, but less time consuming.

fallout 1 and 2 you can go though 2 dozen times and NEVER do anything the same twice. just so much content in the games as well as the fact that pretty much everything you do effects so many things down the road.

chrono trigger, super metroid and metroid prime are three others that come to mind here as well, so ill just mention them.

Um, I usually play FPSs on higher difficulties, or, with the aim of Achievement whoring. That was the case in COD4, Mass Effect, Half 2 and Ep 1. I sometimes play games again 'cos I really liked them, such as KH (1&2), Jak and Ratchet. (games from the other list also fall into here).

- A procrastinator

I've gone through the Resident Evil games I own multiple times. I just finished going through Half Life 2 Episodes 1&2 again. Sure, it was for the Achievements, but it was still a blast. Ditto for Mass Effect. I'm now on my fourth playthrough. I always discover new things in each playthrough. Hell, this current one is a speed run, and I still found something I had never seen before. And there's still plenty to see, as even in my most complete run through, I only went through like 65 to 70% of the quests. (Which by the way, is what you need for the Completionist and the Soldier, Sentinal etc. Ally Achievements.)

Bioshock, and not just for the Achievements. It's honestly the best game I've played all year. Totally worth multiple run throughs.

All the Zelda titles. The Metroid Prime series. Halo 2 and 3. All three Trauma Center games.

Games I'd never play again include FEAR and Condemned. They were awesome games and I loved them... I'd just prefer to not have another heart attack while playing a game. My last one was today when I finished Condemned 2: Bloodshot. Fuck you last level, fuck you!

Strafe Mcgee:
Baldur's Gate 2. Especially BG2. You can just keep replaying over and over and over choosing different quests, character classes etc. It's genius how well that game is made.

My sentiments exactly. I still play that game haha.

For me, I constantly replay games. Ones I usually come back to when I get bored with newer ones are Half Life series, Duke Nukem 3D, BG2, Final Fantasy 4 and Diablo 2. Those games never get old to me.

I must have clocked in 50 hours or so with Jade Empire and KOTOR2. They were short, fun, and you could explore different things with every character you made. Or maybe I'm just a person who likes repetition, who knows..

I sometimes play Star Wars Battlefront on the singleplayer campain all the way though. Because I pwn, I can usually beat it in about 45 minutes. All I play them for is the hilarious diolauge quips inbetween the battles. Right before an Imperial mission on Tatoonie, the Emperor goes "Local Smugglers-" And I cut him off there just to listen to it again or start the battle. Who needs to hear anything else? ('lol')

Zelda: Link's Awakening, it's not the game I've beaten the most (Star Fox 64 and Yoshi's story are currently having a jousting match over that matter) but it's one of the most enjoyable games from my youth. Also, replaying it was just another excuse to use the flying rooster boomerang combo of death again.

Hellgate: London, because of the funny quests (Chocolate Park, hehe) and the good gameplay.

I've always got time to replay the old LucasArts adventure games again. Same with Vampire Bloodlines, there are so many ways of getting through that game that there's plenty of replay value. I'll revisit the SNES Shadowrun game occasionally as well.

And Psychonauts and Guitar Hero, and far too many other games to mention.

I've played WoW, repetition is now anathema... except for Co-op Halo, in which the knowledge of every upcoming event just heightens the explodyniess

I've gone through The Ocarina of time around 4 times. I really liked that game. I have also finished most of my favorite FPS. The halos and GoW come to mind. Pretty much every game that has unlocked Difficulties I replay.

Ratchet and Clank 3: Up your Arsenal.
I can't believe how many times I played through that game, think it was somewhere in the 20-30 range!

Sonic 3 w/ Sonic and Knuckles (had to get the super and hyper forms of each character, after all) (and even then, several more times)

GTA III (only truly 100% completed it once, but otherwise beaten to the credits... numerous times)

GTA VC (see above)

GTA San Andreas (never got 100%, but 90% is close enough)

Morrowind (well, the damn thing's so big, it's easy to find new stuff to do, then I got the expansion packs)

Oblivion (again, see above)

Where in the USA is Carmen Sandiego (ON CD!) (Sorry, they make such a big deal out of that, I had to put it in)

Having a small library of games due to particular tastes makes this a small, boring list. Having not played through most of them a second time makes it smaller. Having never played all the way through in the first place shrinks it further. And having never even attempted single player on whatever's left (Worms and Worms 2, for example) makes it the list that is is.

And I seem to be the one of the few who mention ye olde games like Sonic 3. I wonder why...

And I know starting sentences with "and" is incorrect grammar. Tough. That's the way I talk, and that's the way I type.

Wing Commander: Prophecy, Broken Sword 1/2 and Age of Empires 2.

I usually think that i should replay many games, but in the end, the only games i played through twice are Max Payne 2, The Orange Box Games except Episode 2, Metal Gear Solid 1 and Deus Ex

As opposed to Games i started a second time and stopped halfway through:
Max Payne 1,
Prince of Persia: TOS,
Bioshock,
The Darkness,
Beyond Good and Evil,
Psychonauts,
Every Monkey Island Game,
Mass Effect
and many many more.

Although Mass Effect probably WILL be finished a second time if i have some "new-game-less" time this year.
(Since GTA IV is coming out rather soon and that i still did not bought Ace Combat 6, that somehow seems unlikely)

Omnidum:
Hellgate: London, because of the funny quests (Chocolate Park, hehe) and the good gameplay.

Really? Good gameplay? I think you're one of the first to say this.

When i start a new RPG (Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout, Might&Magic), i play halfway through to get an understanding of skills, quests and character classes. 99% of the time my char/party will suck at this point anyway, so i start a new game and do it right this time.

Right now, i am playing through Doom3 on my Xbox for the third time. I love this game, despite all the hate it gets. Its much better on the Xbox anyway because they had to make every level shorter and smaller. So, it is more claustrophobic and not so much running through the same set of rooms for two hours. Only for one hour. To embarass myself even more, i played Half-Life 2 for 30 minutes once and i just didnt get it. Never played it again. I loved HL1, but 2... no idea, it felt totally boring.

I will often replay games, but I usually do it in chunks wherever possible. For example, I tend to like games that have a Level Select option once you've beaten them, and that way I can go back through I replay my favorite bits.

It's fairly rare for me not to replay a game at least once though.

- J

I replay most of my favourite RPGs, usually testing out new character classes/combinations and mainly to see if I missed anything, both storylinewise and secretwise.

I've played the Golden Sun series through three times since its release, each time with a different djinn setup. (that's less than once-a-year, so I'm not that much of a fanboy!)