What is the last video game that you were completely hooked on?
What is the last video game that you were completely hooked on?
The kind of game you daydream about while at school or work because you can’t wait to come home and play some more.
I'm still playing Starfield. I'm 120% the targeted audience. It helped me go through depression.
I'm a 45 years old dude, and I started creating a comic with my character in Starfield, by taking screenshots and adding speech bubbles with Figma. I didn't know I had it in me.
As far as I'm concerned, Starfield is self-care.
Baldur's Gate 3. I just can't get enough. When I'm too tired to play myself I'm watching streams of other people playing. Sometimes I get fed up for a few days but so far it has always pulled me back in.
The "worst" for me was in 2006 with the release of Gothic 3. I had saved up for a powerful new PC and taken two or three weeks off work to play. I played deep into the night. Then deep into the morning. Then deep into the day. Then deep into the evening. Until my sleep schedule was aligned with my regular schedule again at the end of my holidays.
You'll laugh.
Bus simulator: Ultimate
Android game that will toast your phone, but it's pretty nice. It has a multiplayer too and a 2nd hand market where people bid on used buses. Naturally this means it's best to attempt to put a bus for auction in specific hours, and bid in others.Some of the longer routes take well over an hour in real world.
One effect on me, which is also true for trains and busses in real life, is that it makes me sleepy pretty quickly.
Low frequency sound of the engine, trees moving past, road lanes quickly zipping past, you're just staring in front while doing minor adjustments and falling asleep.
I should not drive in real life.FacCracktorioProbably WoW tbh. I don't play anymore and don't recommend it, but WoW with friends/guildies at its peak is unparalleled. You can't wait to log on and reconnect with everyone.
Currently Horizon: Forbidden West. So glad the PC port only took 2 years this time around rather than 5 for the first one (or however long it was)
No Mans Sky. Off and on for like 4 years now. But I keep coming back with each new update and I get completely hooked again.
Crusader kings 3, aka Sims for psychopaths.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart
It has a special place for me because a long time ago, when I was younger, I had R&C Size Matters as the only game on my PSP and that's because I bought the PSP in a bundle
And that was the only R&C game I played until Rift Apart and that shit hit me like that scene in the end of Ratatouille mfer
Noita! I've stopped playing it now as I more or less achieved everything I wanted to with it, but it really got a hold of me with how much it rewards creative approaches to problems
Spellcaster University.
It's not the most complex game, but you're given control to build your own set of universities, trying to accomplish the goals given to you. You have a limited amount of time before the Great Evil comes and you have to start over.
Each location has its pros and cons, different graduation classes can give benefits that persist through the run, and all the building is done through picking one of 3 cards themed around what they focus on(Gold for general improvement and random magic things, Mana of particular types for rooms/items focused on that school of magic).
Finally played Half-Life 2 recently. Best shooter I have ever played.
Kenshi. Just the sheer dynamic ant-farm nature of it made the grind somehow all the more the worth. Even if you cheat and max out all your stats, you can still invent your own narrative in your head for what you think is happening.
Completely hooked on: Baldur's Gate 3.
Completely hooked on in the past tense and stopped playing: Overwatch.
Noita - for the longest time the addiction was something along the lines of not letting this 'simple' game beat me, and damn does it beat you...
Then I finally had my first God run breaking the reroll machines and oh my fuck it's like crack. I've been chasing that dragon ever since.
Ignoring digital releases of card games, which I've loved since I was a kid, it has to be Valheim. I would spend hours and hours making structures like castles and villages, with their own defense mechanisms against monster invasions. It's a wonderful indie game, very pretty for only taking 1GB in storage.
Dragon's Dogma 2 really has me like that now. I've waited years for this, and for the most part it's everything I expected. I love the new playable race, and I'm excited to try out the new vocations. I have a lot of fun just hunting monsters for other players' followers' quests, and finding things for them to potentially tell their own players about. In some ways it feels better than traditional multiplayer.
Also loving Helldivers 2, but now that I've unlocked almost everything it's no longer all I think about all day.
Runescape/Old school runescape
Been playing since 2009. Sure I've taken breaks, sometimes multiple years, but I always return.
The old saying is true, "You never quit runescape, you just take breaks"
Commandos 3: Destination Berlin The gameplay was so good and I kept imagining about the missions all the time.
I think there are two answers to this.
The most recent game I was completely captivated by and just obsessed with was Subnautica. I was deep into it in 2022.
The most recent one I spent a long time playing is Satisfactory, I started my most recent run in mid-December and completed it a week or two ago. Satisfactory didn't quite grab me the way Subnautica did in terms of loving this world, but I get into it. I had a goal of 100% full clearing it including buying all the trophies before it was out of early access, so I did.
Kerbal Space Program, Shadow Empire and Baldur's Gate 3.
SimCity 3K - played it for YEARS, was involved heavily into the modding communities and basically thought of nothing else.
Even after pouring thousands of hours into the game, I don't feel like it was wasted time.
Stardew Valley
Project Zomboid.
It's bleak and definitely isn't for everyone but I really get sucked into it. The permadeath aspect usually turns me off a game but in this case it completely breaks me of my habit of save scumming. Every zombie encounter is tense, a single mistake can leave you infected. Sometimes there are long quiet periods where I just survive holed up somewhere safe, reading books, exercising or sorting/building. Other times it's extremely intense trying to drive through town with a horde on my tail trying to lure them away and double back so I can loot an area.
I find myself looking up the world map at work and planning a route towards a new area or trying to find a suitable spot for a base that meets my survival needs.
Team Fortress 2, for more than 8 years
Cyberpunk 2077 when it was released. And then panam made me cry ( ._.) And that scene inside the robo is burnt into my brain xD
I kinda didnt even realise alot of the bugs, cause I really enjoyed the story. I remember seeing the trees through the walls but the immersion/ my imagination was strong enough to mask them .D
Space Engineers. I played that shit for at least one ten hour session and a bunch of six your sessions.
Then I got to a certain point in the game and there was just … no goal. And I sorta lost all my steam.
Technically I still have the goal of “kill as many drones as possible in the never surrender thing”, but I’m focusing on work which I neglected while playing.
Kenshi, and I still am. Before that it was Stellaris. Singleplayer sandbox with modding is basically what does it for me.
The last game that truly gave me the feeling you described is Lies of P. It was my favourite game of 2023 and the 60 or so hours I put into beating it were very well spent.
Rain World.
I have some spoilers (including the gist of the ending) but am playing as blind as I can manage. It’s nice to just play and discover without having a guide by my side.
You spelled current wrong.
Right now it’s brawlhalla, free smash clone on steam.
“Just one more game”
GTA 4 modded the new dxvk update made it run amazingly on PC
Modded minecraft
Palworld! Couldn't stop playing it with my friends, it was such a blast! I say "was", because we quickly all got to level 50 and now we're waiting for a big update that'll make the game fresh again!
A link to the past, I couldn’t put that down once I started it
Currently hooked on Humanity, which I just got. I played until 6am the other day...
Help me.
Dayz currently. Before that, Rimworld. Before that, factorio.
The Finals has been my default game — if none of my friends are playing anything else — since it launched
Right now, Death Stranding.
Edit: I went back to look at the reception of this game from at its release. It did great at the VGAs, but general consensus on Reddit and other forums negative. I also remember how much The Giant Beastcast shat on that game (I stopped listening to them pretty soon after that too, but for unrelated reason).
I got back on the Warframe wagon with the Whispers in the Walls update. After a long break, I'm impressed how much better it is, and it's hooks are firmly back in my brain. The new location and the throat chanting type soundtrack from the semi-hidden boss regularly flash into my brain at awkward times.
Age of calamity is most recent. Not so much for the gameply but i got hugely into the BOTW lore and seeing everything before it got nuked to shit latched onto my obsessive little heart.
PC gaming, War for the Overworld
Crusader Kings 3
Games really have to strike a chord with me to stick around in my memory. The last ones that truly left an impression were from when I first got into gaming. I can still vividly remember the impact of Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, GTA 3, and Vice City and San Andreas—they consumed my thoughts entirely. The allure of uncovering hidden secrets, areas left unexplored, that's what really drew me in. Half-life 2 was a mind-blowing breakthrough with its physics and storytelling. But nowadays, that spark just seems to be missing. The closest I've come recently was with Blizzard's Heroes of the Storm. The thrill of snatching a victory against the odds, the sense of connection with total strangers—it was something special. It's the only game that still gets my heart racing these days. However, I've found myself drifting away from HotS more and more; it feels like the game is losing its luster (or maybe it's Blizzard who's letting it fade... or perhaps MOBAs in general are falling out of favor). As for recent gems that really struck a chord with me, I'd have to mention Hollow Knight, Control (seriously underrated in my opinion—easily one of the best metroidvanias out there, if not the best), and Baldur's Gate 3, which was unexpectedly captivating.
Like a Dragon : Infinite Wealth
Desperados 3. I've put in close to 100 hours on it and I'm just 4 achievements away from completing all its challenges. I'm so bummed its developer had to close down a few months ago because their games are criminally underrated and are from a very niche genre.
Postal Brain Damaged. If you like boomer shooters,
It's got charming art and level designs, satisfying weapons, and a whole lot of irreverence.
I'm out of the daydreaming phase because I've beaten it a few times, but it's still my comfort food game of choice.
HoloCure out of all things. It's a more advanced Vampire Survivors clone centered around HoloLive vtubers. Being so simple yet cute and addictive is what made me hooked. Even now I still play once in a while on my breaks, althought there is nothing to surprise me left in this game.
Previous to that, I remember being absolutely blown out by Fallout 1. I'm young enough not to be on the wave of games of that era and the game design amazed me. I look forward to playing the 2nd game fo the series but I will have to do some tinkering since I'm Linux-only now.
Dirt Rally 2.0 with Force feedback wheel and pedals.
Ugh, I just can't get enough of it. Who needs crack when you have sim racing?
The Finals, can't get enough of it since launch. Pushing for top 1000 this week.
Far Cry 5
The Binding of Isaac
Zelda Minish cap
Signalis. Which is weird, its over in 10 hours but I got hooked on the fandom crack until recently.
Black Mesa Project and Stray
One sandbox that recently grabbed me was in Automation: The Car Tycoon game. You can make custom cars and engines and export them to BeamNG and I got pretty into that and made my first ever mod or two.
Revs. (1985 ish)
Chucky Egg (around the same time).
Right now for me, that's Persona 3 Portable. These games have their issues, but the stories really make you care about the characters!
Endless Space 2, ever since the Re-Awakening update. And it's still the best 4x space game out there.
Permanently Deleted
Meet Your Maker was probably the last one. I would day dream about the bases I could make and stuff. I think there's a community for it here but it's a lot more dead than the one on Reddit.
Inscryption
I guess Dark Cloud 2 (aka Dark Chronicles) again, because I'm playing it again and I'm hooked.
Starfield for a few weeks.
Last one was dark souls 3... But now it is Voices of the Void.
Civ4. I still play that shit weekly, often even more. Specifically the latest iteration of the Fall From Heaven Mod, but still, great game.
Only game that’s hooked me in years is Quake Champions, great shooter
Path of Exile.
Still am, but used to be too. Eagerly anticipating poe2 release.
Probably Gregtech Community Pack