Games you replay periodically

It's a pretty short and focused list, Fallout 1, Baldur's Gate 1, at least once a year, although I'll often start and play halfway through then give up and restart a few months later. I just really like playing the early portions of those games but don't have time to do multiple complete playthroughs.

Then Resident Evil 2 I'll play whenever, it's an easy chill-out game for me, at one point I was playing it so much and so often I was competitive for a world-record speedrun time.

That's pretty much it, I replay so few games nowadays. I'll tackle Final Fantasy 7 once every few years but I usually get to disc 2 and call it quits.

@humanity: You might not have any nostalgia for stuff? I am currently replaying Mass Effect and even hearing the music makes me go: 'Oh fuck, that's right! Oh yeah... this game was so fucking insanely awesome'. Then I go create a new character and it goes: 'What about Shepard? Earthborn... but no record of his family. He held off an enemy attack during the Blitz. We can't question his courage. I'll make the call'. Then the intro comes up about Mars: 'They call it... MASS EFFECT'. And I'm like: Yes! Let's get this started.

It's just so much fun experiencing that stuff again. The smallest details mean so much.

That said, it's not just nostalgia because as soon as I finished Mass Effect for the first time, I immediately started a new game. I guess it's kind of hard to explain why I want to do the same thing over and over without being easy about it and saying it's 'just that much fun'.

@zevvion: Totally agree. There are triggers in certain games that just evoke ... [davidcagevoice]emotions[/davidcagevoice] in me and replaying them still has a strong pull. Exiting the Vault in Fallout 3, leaving the sewers on Oblivion, most of the set pieces in the original Tomb Raider etc.

I've played through Arcanum every year since its release.

Replaying transistor now, with the limiters on it can actually be quite a challenge. Periodically go back to playing some of the Ace Combat missions, they're good fun.

Not sure if this counts because it's not a story-based game, but Civ V. Have to limit myself to periodic plays or it takes over my life.

Fallout 3 and new vegas are pretty much the only ones I came back to regularly for a long time BUT I havent played them since probably a year or something now after having to start the whole fucking game over after 100+ hours because of a game breaking bug 3 TIMES! in both games! spread over a couple of years. I love fallout but goddamn, not much games I'd tolerate letting me start over and over again. And no I dont make a million saves especialy when it comes to games with so much choice and consequence, I dont want to have the option to go back to previous save and make another choice because I feel that that totally destroys the impact of choices for me.

There are way to much amazing games imo to have time to replay stuff much. At least for me. New games, old games, my backlog is just so fucking ridiculously huge.

@humanity:

I agree with zeevion, but I'll expand upon what he said, by also atributing nostalgia to past personal experiences beyond the game, like the fact that you bought that game at your birthday and spent your day playing it and loving each moment, associating to it very pleasent feelings and ideas you like to revive each now and then.

Also for catering personal preferences, like a game that is divided into tiny segments allowing it to be played in short bursts.

Personally I replay often Alan Wake, because it's beautiful, and calm and for the nostalgia for both the game and the time period I originally played it on.

I also replay Last of Us, Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill Downpour because they are such great games and also so calm and dingy.

Resident Evil Zero because I love zombies, it's oppressive and disturbing and it's graphics are breathtaking at some places.

Persona 4, silent hill 1-3, Journey and since I played through SMT: Nocturne for the second time this year it wouldn't suprise me if that will become a thing for me too.

I've probably replayed Shining Force II at least once every year since I was a kid. The other Shining Force games I replay every couple years or so, same with most Final Fantasies with FFV, FFVII and FFXII being more common. I tend to replay Inindo a lot as well. I love replaying first person dungeon crawlers and Wizardry: Tale of the Forsaken Land is probably my favorite of those so I tend to go back to that one most often.

i wanna add that i dont replay games just to replay them,there are qualifications to where even if a game is amazing i still might not replay it.the game has to be obviously VERY replayable,whether it has randomization to it,multiple endings or choices there has to be a reason for going back.in most cases what gets me to replay a game is randomization,like items,stats,the world itself and so on.thats the reason i can replay games like borderlands and diablo over and over is because even though you are technically doing the same thing you already did,it feels different enough that it gives you a new experience.the reason i play re4,fallout and skyrim over and over is because i love the exploration in those games,even though ive been there before.i just love being in those worlds so much that i dont care how many times im coming back.i also replay games like the ones mentioned before because i love that genre of game and feel they are the best in there genre,so until something comes along that does it better,ide rather play them over again then play a new game that doesnt do it as good.the final reason i replay games is for combat that i love.i love the combat in borderlands and re4,so i play them to experience the combat system again.so yeah thats why i replay games,other people might have different reasons like nostalgia,they love the characters so much that they wanna see them again and many others.hope this can give more understanding to why atleast i or maybe others replay games.

Once in a while I boot up Digimon World on the playstation and see if I can get different evolutions each time, I never managed to complete the game.

Severance: Blade of Darkness

- Mass effect saga. Played it 3 times from start to finish already.

- Far Cry 3.

- Sonic The Hedgehog. 1,2 and 3.

- GTA Vice City

- Fallout New Vegas

- Skyrim

- Oblivion

- Baldur's gate 1 and 2. Icewind Dale 1 and 2.

- Borderlands 2.

I am usually playing any two of these games throughout the year while I play new releases.

The three Mass Effect games; I like taking a character from 1 through 3 in a continuous arc.

Metal Gear Solid 2, Metal Gear Rising

Crysis 2

Dead Space, Dead Space 2

Assassin's Creed 2

Half-Life 2, Portal, Portal 2

Bioshock, Bioshock Infinite

.Saint's Row the Third, Saint's Row IV

Borderlands

Resident Evil 4

Fallout 3

Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

Gosh. It's a big list. I try to go back and replay games as often as possible. I just appreciate the historicism of it, seeing what games kickstarted what trends, or how games were informed by the trends of the day.

Fallout New Vegas and Mega Man X are the first games that come to mind.

PC

1. F.E.A.R.

2. Max Payne 1,2,3.

3. GTA4

4.Sleeping Dogs

5. Saint row 3 and 4.

6.FarCry 3

7.Alan Wake

8.Mirror's Edge.

9. The new Tomb Raider.

10. Splinter Cell conviction or blacklist love them both even though Conviction is a horrible port.

11. L.A. Noire

12. DeadSpace 2

13. RE4

14. ME2

The list will grow in the future I always replay games I'm a addict. :)

MGS 1-3 ( 4 never grabbed me in the same way the others did, still a great game ) Tomb Raider 1, Crash Bandicoot 2, ( love the soundtrack ) and every once in a while I'll install Battlefield 1942, and Morrowind to see how it runs on computer I have at the time.

@zevvion:

That said, it's not just nostalgia because as soon as I finished Mass Effect for the first time, I immediately started a new game. I guess it's kind of hard to explain why I want to do the same thing over and over without being easy about it and saying it's 'just that much fun'.

I believe that you immediately wanted to start a new game to experience more of Mass Effect, and those feelings you felt before, when playing game, plus it allowed you the oportunity to see the game all over again in a different light, knowing how it all happened before, experiencing new feelings and constructing new pleasurable memories.

That being said, nostalgia is a similar feeling, to the desire to play again after finishing the game. The difference resides in the fact that both the recolection of the game, and playing the game, and the feelings you experienced are much more vague and muddled, and the desire to play again is probably stronger than after finishing the game, because it is a premeditated action, that you have been thinking about for some time and postponing. And this makes the retrospect of the prior experience with the game, and the game itself, much less important and more vague, as you probably don't remember that much to begin with.

The entire Splinter Cell series

Mirror's Edge

Banjo Kazooie

Uncharted 2

Shadow Complex

Braid

I play Persona 4 at least once a year. It became even easier once I picked up a Vita, Persona 4 Golden has never left my memory card since I got it.

Once a year I strap myself into my 3RD Impact Vest, close all the blinds, fire up the 3D glasses and blast through CoD4: Modern Warfare. Was hoping to do this years run on the DK2, unfortunately no matter how much i played with Vorpx i couldn't get it going.

Far Cry 2 is starting to become another regular play-through game along with the original Crysis.

Descent 1 also does it for me along with Starlancer. God damn Starlancer was good with mates on LAN. That campaign is still super enjoyable today.

Last gen I replayed Saint's Row 2 and 3 a bunch. I only replayed 4 once and I feel like I probably won't play it again. My other go to was Skyrim. So far this gen I don't know if there's anything I'll replay. But I'll likely play The Binding of Isaac once in awhile for years.

There of the heavy hitters:

• Call of Duty 4 - Still the best FPS campaign ever. I'd really like to see this one get a remastered edition with a graphical upgrade and new features in multiplayer.
• Dead Space - My favorite game from last generation. The visuals, the sound design, the gameplay, all top-notch.
• Bioshock - Revisiting this game and trying out under-used weapons and plasmids is a lot of fun, particularly as I relied heavily on the wrench my first time playing the game, needlessly hoarding ammo and Eve.

Painkiller Black
Skyrim
Silent Storm
F.E.A.R.

Shenmue 1+2 and Persona 3+4

Shenmue less often these days sadly because I dont have an Xbox or a 360 anymore.

Team Fortress 2

Fallout: New Vegas

random rpgs here and there sometimes i play games almost straight through, and then never come back to them. I have to start finishing things.

I used to play A Link to the Past at least once every year. I actually try to replay at least a little bit of my library every now and then just to see if I still like the game as much as I did. These days though I mostly find I keep jumping back into the Souls series. They're just such great podcast games.

When I was in college there were like a handful of games I tried to replay yearly more or less. The short list of those high priority games is Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, DKC1-3, Paper Mario, PM TTYD, Majora's Mask. Kirby 64 too maybe. There were also a good deal of games that I didn't go out of my way to replay yearly but did replay every now and again.

I haven't kept up that pace recently. I do replay the occasional game but mostly I play new games during my free time. That said the old games aren't out of mind as twice a year they're likely to be in a AGDQ/SGDQ! Watching someone break these games and beat them in an hour or two or three is way faster than playing it myself with most of the good parts of revisiting a game. Plus there's always new stuff in the speedrunning scene! New tricks, discoveries, optimizations, exploits, it's great! There's always new stuff to see which isn't necessarily true if you're replaying a game yourself.

I usually replay Monkey Island 1 and 2 around Christmas time. It just feels right. Sometimes I sneak Day of the Tentacle and/or Sam 'n Max in there too.

Half Life 2, Jazzpunk

I tend to play Half Life 2 at the very least once a year. Usually a few times.

• Skyrim
• Grand theft auto series
• Fallout 3

The first x-com game. It has different names, here its called UFO:Enemy Unknown. That game still holds up today and is a delight to revisit after a few years.

This one.

As many others have stated, I also replay SOTN every year or two.

Gunstar Heroes, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Mega Man X are three that I'm guaranteed to play at least once a year.

I'll rotate Final Fantasies but I tend to play FFX and FFIV way too often.

I still consistently play The Last of Us multiplayer.

I'll return randomly to games like Picross 3D, Burnout Paradise, Mortal Kombat 9 and Rhythm Heaven Fever. With certain friends we'll go back to Worms Armageddon, Lemmings, and You Don't Know Jack.

I don't replay Mario and Zelda games as much as I'd like to. I play the hell out of each one while I'm in the moment, but I just haven't replayed much of them recently. I'd also like to go back and play Kirby Super Star or Brave Fencer Musashi more often.

Even more strangely... I do the same, (not at Christmas though). I love your explanation. Never thought or analyzed why I do it, but I reckon it is the same for me. Nostalgia is a strong thing.

Half Life 2... It's weird, I haven't really liked a FPS ever since. Except for maybe Crysis, but I only played that once.

@viking: It really is man, i mean i never play MMO's and i play that one purely solo. I'm getting the itch today to be honest.

With new priorities now, I find myself torn between playing new releases and old time classics, mainly due to time constraints. Back in the day though, I would play the Mass Effects and RE5 a few times a year. But prior to that it was Ocarina of Time and REmake. Both great games, and I can't wait until the re-release of REmake.

I am replaying Fallout: New Vegas with a bunch of mods right now. I think that a modded version of that game looks better than any PS4 title available right now, its actually kind of stunnign.

I play Super Mario World at least once a year. It is after all, the greatest video game of all time.

All of them. Rather I'm only interested in the games I know I will replay to begin with.