Let's face it: We can't stop playing certain games. Whether it's addictive combat, tons of replay value invested in second or third playthroughs, or just a huge appreciation for the game in question, we all have those games that we've logged countless hours into the single player alone.
It's easy to play eighty million StarCraft matches or spend several nights on Halo: Reach binges, but there's something to be said about reaching triple digits on single player. It means that without online match lobbies or extensive replay to be found in online tournaments, something drove us to put over 100 hours into a single-player story. Hell, maybe you just spent 90 hours obsessively hunting for achievements. Either way, it's a huge accomplishment that signifies what a game means to you.
So here is my venerable list of these triple digit titles. Maybe at some point down the line I'll make a multiplayer, although that still feels a lot easier.
Tales of Vesperia- This is easily one of the best RPGs I've played in a long time. The story will run you a very respectable 40-50 hours, but with New Game+ there are a lot of great reasons to replay it. At the end of the game you can spend a form of currency, GRADE, to acquire New Game+ upgrades like 2X normal experience, 10X normal experience, unlocking additional content, or even unlocking a new difficulty level. After logging 60 hours into New Game+, I broke the 100-hour mark and actually got an achievement called "Too Much Free Time". I'm not arguing!
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - To me San Andreas really brought out how much fun a true open sandbox could be. Beyond a simple city, having open terrain and big mountains lent a whole new layer of fun to the experience. I would postpone missions for hours at a time in favor of enjoying the jet pack, ramping my bike off of mountains, parachuting from planes, racking up wanted levels, and just having a ton of fun. Between that and completing every mission in the game, hitting 100 hours was no problem.
Fallout 3 - The amount of content in Fallout 3 by itself is huge, and I'm fortunate enough to have all of the expansion packs. The massive laundry list of quests and exploration opportunities made it impossible to put this one down even on one playthrough, and The Pitt and Point Lookout added even more chunks of territory to explore. If New Vegas is as addictive as this, I'm in trouble.
Chrono Trigger - This one almost feels like cheating since I've played it at least seven times over the course of about ten years, eight including my review of the DS version. It may be predictable as a favorite and well-played game but there's just a lot to love about Chrono Trigger, and to date it's one of those games that's fun to play just another time.
Honorable mentions go games where I didn't quite make triple digits, but still logged around seventy plus hours: Final Fantasy VI and VII, Dragon Quest VIII, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and Persona 3 (currently playing this one).
It's interesting looking back on the games you've actually managed to log four days' worth of time into and see what they mean to you. I've been playing video games since the age of three, so these really represent what I've wanted to devote my time and energy to the most. What's your hall of fame?
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